"Well let's go check this motherfucker out then, huh?" I said excitedly, tapping Daryl's chest and making my way down a steepish hill that came before a side street of Georgia.
"Wait," he quickly said, tugging on my arm. I backed up and waited patiently for an explanation. "Let's arc around, jus to make sure he doesn't see us."
"Psh, sounds like a plan to me," I replied, shrugging my shoulders as I followed him through the wide space of trees.
"Glenn comes this way all the time," Daryl roughly added, being extra careful not to step on crunchy leaves. "When did he go last?"
"Yesterday," I breathlessly answered, "doesn't mean the sniper wasn't here then."
"But think about it," he said, "you gotta assume this guy's gonna shoot anything that moves."
"I dunno," I uneasily replied. "Think we're safe yet?"
Before answering me, Daryl looked towards the sky where the sun was positioned. It was smack dab in the middle; noon.
"Yeah, you go ahead and head down there," Daryl blankly told me, "Imma check out the area, see if they went through here."
I swallowed hard and nodded my head reluctantly.
"Promise me you'll be careful," I pleaded seriously. He looked back at me like I was insane.
"What's the worst that can happen, really? Walkers ain't a problem," he said confidently, holding up his crossbow and wiggling it.
I laughed nervously and nodded my head a second time, getting to the crown of the hill before looking back at Daryl. He was watching me intently.
"Are you gonna stand there and stare at me the whole time?" I yelled jokingly to him. He raised his arm slowly, giving me a grand finale of sticking out his middle finger.
"Oh, that is so nice of you," I snarled, butterflies going insane in my stomach when he lowered his arm and laughed wholeheartedly. I giggled and stood there longer, watching him watch me. I finally gave in and ran the distance between us, running straight to his arms and jamming a kiss on his lips.
"It should be me who's telling you to be careful," he laughed, pulling away but keeping ahold of my hand.
"I'm a girl," I teased, "I'm naturally careful."
"Ooh, I wouldn't say that," he argued, "betcha wouldn't say the same about Lori."
"She's careful," I thought, "to an extent."
"And yours doesn't have any extent, right?"
"Are you making fun of me?" I accused, slapping his chest before romantically pecking him and letting go, remaking my way to the edge of the hill.
"Promise me you'll be careful," Daryl mocked in a hideous high pitched voice.
"See, now you're really making fun of me," I called back. "And I do not sound like that."
"Oh, look at me," he continued, waving his hand in the air and holding up a pretend skirt, "I'm a girl, that makes me naturally cautious."
"That's cute, Daryl. I'm leaving now," I laughed, shaking my head as I carefully made my way down the hill. It was steeper than the incline back at the viewpoint.
"Try not to chip a nail, precious!" Daryl loudly called out to me, laughing equally loudly.
"Fuck you, Daryl!"
Damn birds, I thought to myself as I slowly grabbed the skinny trees trunk to steady myself on the incline. I always hated when they rustled the tree branches. They put me on edge and way more paranoid then I should have been.
A louder rustle caught my attention once I got down from the hill. I looked to the top for any signs of bigger wildlife, or maybe even something that could eat me. So far, there had been more bear sightings than Walkers.
Something then whistled past my ear, an all too familiar whistle.
Someone just tried to shoot me from behind and missed my ear by a quarter of an inch.
I swiveled around quickly to see a gun pointed directly at my temple. A ferocious looking man held the gun, until I glanced down at his pants. He was wearing Bermuda's with a pink belt. The fuck.
"You the sniper?" I asked bluntly, controlling my face to seem calm. For the situation I was in, I was actually doing pretty well at not shitting my pants. Laughing.
He laughed and lowered his gun, putting it in his pants waistband.
Wrong move, that was. Especially when you're dealing with me.
I swiftly pulled out my knife, sliding in back of him and grabbing his neck with the crook of my arm. I placed the blade of my favorite melee weapon right on top of his jugular. One wrong move and he'd bleed out within five minutes.
"Woah, calm the fuck down! Is it that hard to be civilized around here?" he squealed, raising my suspicions across the board about this dude. How he had survived this long is a mystery to mankind.
"Guess you didn't get the memo," I snarled, "there is no civilization."
He tried to escape my hold, for a few seconds forgetting there was a knife close to killing him. He quickly stopped struggling and held up his hands. I rolled my eyes; he had total advantage to use his gun. And guns usually win against knifes.
"Ayden Arezzo," I finally said in my nice guy tone, removing the blade from his neck and placing it back in it's holster.
He slowly turned around as if he moved; I would pull that shit out again. He seemed harmless- no, he had to be harmless enough.
"Uh... Jimmy Brewer. I thought for sure you were gonna cut my fuckin' throat out. Didn't mean to shoot at you, I thought you were one of them." Jimmy explained, straightening out a plain black tee that tightly fit on him.
"Don't worry, man. I guess it's my karma getting back at me. Oh, I like your kicks," I pointed out, looking towards where I heard the rustle in the first place. "Hey, listen. Do you have any other guys out here?"
"Yeah, I got Thrash up the hill a ways and the sniper you were talking about, Verlaine holding fort."
"Shit," I sighed, combing my sweaty bangs off of my face, "Would he be the type of guy to hold a dude with a crossbow hostage?"
"Probably, why?"
"Because that's my boyfriend he just ran into. Call out to Thrash, chances are if we didn't hear them they didn't hear us."
Jimmy called out to thrash, coning his hands around his mouth and facing the top of the hill.
"Yo, Urine. I knew yous didn't go far," Thrash answered back with a heavy New York accent, "come here, see what I jus' caught. By the way, whadcha jus' shoot?"
"Nothin," Jimmy replied anxiously, looking at me for approval. I nodded my head. "Got spooked by rattling branches."
"Lemme borrow your gun," I asked Jimmy an held out my hand. He took a step back.
"Uh, hell no. I don't know you yet."
"Look, this is how we're playing this," I whispered, intimidatingly closing the gap between us, "I will pretend to hold you hostage and we will do a fair 'trade', okay? I promise I will not shoot you."
"I dunno," Jimmy nervously said. I put my hand on my knife holster as a warning.
"I really do not want to take pretend out of the game plan, so are you fucking with me, or not?"
"Yeah, yeah. Calm down," he raised his hands and lowered them, signaling me to lower my voice. Jimmy took the automatic out of his waistband and reluctantly handed it over.
"Okay," I explained cautiously, creeping up to the back of him, "I am going to do the same maneuver, 'cept with a gun. Sound good?"
"I don't know whether to trust you or not," he said through barred teeth as I gently wrapped my arm around his neck and aimed the gun directly at his head.
"If it's Daryl we're talking about, I'm the only one to trust."
Jimmy was visibly shaking under my grasp, my words only making a dent in his nerves. I sighed and licked my lips.
"Would it make you feel better if I put it on safety?"
"What's that?" Jimmy honestly asked. I shook my head.
This guy and I are not going to get along.
"It's makes it so the trigger locks in place," I impatiently answered, clicking the safety on before putting it in front of his face and pulling on the trigger. "See?"
"Yeah," he still shook, "okay."
We quickly made our way up the hill, only stopping before we reached the top, then slowing our pace down.
"Finally, bro. It's gotta be a hundred degrees out-" Thrash paused, glancing behind him, to me.
"Let go of Daryl and I'll hand over Jimmy," I spat, looking at Daryl for guidance.
Other than the few scratches across his face, he looked in good condition. He was leaning against a tree with Thrash's shotgun aimed directly toward his face.
"Ooh, she's a pretty one, Daryl," Thrash snarled, tapping him in the head for his attention. Daryl defiantly looked up at him, fire in his eyes.
"Shut up before I forcibly violate your skull with a rusty screwdriver," Daryl said, Thrash whistling in reaction as I raised my eyebrows.
"Violence," I explained, "Daryl makes it happen better than he can creatively come up with it."
"Well, thank ya," Daryl laughed, looking up at Thrash, "this comin' from the girl that can think up gory phrases better than I can."
I blushed a deep red, quickly after throwing my game face back on.
"So we gonna trade or not?" I yelled, making poor Jimmy jump.
"Depends," he said calmly, placing his hand on his chin. "I see an uneven deal here."
"On what side?" I preposterously asked, figuring even though Jimmy was a dumbass he'd still say Daryl.
"What?" Jimmy and Daryl said at the same time, narrowing their eyes at each other.
"Well, see your lil boyfriend right here," he jabbed Daryl with his shotgun, "he knows howta hunt. Pretty good with dem crossbow skills I assume, right?"
"Get to the point, Thrash," I growled, growing tired of him toying with words.
"How good's your sharpshooting? I also assume yous the jack of all aces in da group?"
"Better than Verlaine's, I bet you a Benjamin," I replied, getting confused looks from Daryl and angry looks from Thrash.
"Goddamit, Jimmy! Do ya always go around yappin' your mouth to to everyone you just met?" Thrash yelled, at Jimmy, taking his gun away from Daryl for a split second.
It was long enough for him to react. And long enough for me to catch his drift.
I pushed Jimmy aside just as Daryl extended his leg and tripped Thrash, turning the tables and putting his crossbow in Thrash's face.
"Oh, look what's happened now," I laughed, making my way to Thrash. I even swayed my hips a little, making my walk look more dramatically sexy. Although I could see Daryl really, really wanting to look over, he remained concentrated on Thrash. As a plus, my tight jeans, combat boots, and thigh holster added to the wholes sexiness of it all. Like Daryl commented earlier.
"Listen, we don't want anything from you," I said, crouching over Thrash and looking at Daryl. He slyly smiled and lovingly bumped my shoulder.
"You all can just go along back to your hideout, huh?" Daryl suggested, making it sound more demanding than a suggestion.
"Wait, wait!" Jimmy exclaimed, suddenly standing up and pointing toward the city.
"Walkers?" I asked, walking intently to where Jimmy stood. Someone was running this way, who I assumed was Verlaine. She had bright purple hair and was running quite fast. In fact, it seemed as if we ever were to race it would be very, very close.
"Verlaine! What the fuck are you doing?" Thrash said
Once Daryl moved to my side and he followed. We all stood in a uneven but technically straight line, watching as the girl with purple hair rushed toward us.
Before she could stop, Verlaine ran straight into Thrash, knocking him clear off his feet. I flinched back and covered my mouth as she and Thrash slowly got up, both of them trying to catch their breath.
"Walkers... Overrun..." she paused to look at Daryl and I, giving me a curious glance and Daryl a disgusted one.
"This is Ayden and Daryl," Jimmy amended, waving his hand to include the both of us.
"Yo," I said, standing up straight and shoving my hands in my pockets.
Verlaine scoffed. "Which ones the dude?"
"Watch your fucking mouth before I have to cut it off," Daryl snared, taking a step forward and getting his crossbow ready.
"Woah, Daryl," I said, pushing him back, "calm down. It's no argument why the Geeks swarmed the place, in between your traffic directing hair and that loud ass snipe of yours-"
"Take your boyfriends words into consideration," Verlaine interrupted, "before I make them into my own."
"Ooh," I exhaled sarcastically, "scary."
"This bitch is getting on my nerves, where'd you dig up these shit birds anyway, Thrash?"
He held up his hands like he didn't know where we came from.
"I'd watch who you're calling bitch," I said, letting a smile invade my mouth. I'd always thought when people talked shit about me, it was hilarious.
"What are you gonna do?" she laughed, looking around to get her groups approval. They shook their heads cautiously.
"Oh, it's not me you need to worry about," I said, glancing over to Daryl and taking my hands out of the jean's pockets. I started pacing around Verlaine, keeping a very close eye on her.
"You sic your boyfriend after all your problems?" she laughed mockingly again, releasing a snicker out of me.
"No, it's what he'll do to your dead body after I'm done with it," I snarled, probably the most serious tone I've used with her yet. It silenced her as she looked at me in distinct veracity.
"Any other choice phrases you'd like to hear," Daryl commented, walking to my side and grabbing my waist, "because she has a lot more than that."