Chapter Thirty: Opportunity

Opportunity: a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

Day 68

A low thwip pierced the silence, Daisy flinched and brought her hands up in front of her, shooting a dirty look towards Daryl, "Give me some warning, Jesus." He returned her dirty look, though with less heat than hers, and stalked forward over the crunching leaves on the forest floor towards where he had aimed his bolt.

"Yeah, Jesus, give a girl some warning!" Merle snickered off to the side where he was lazing against a tree trunk, the acrid scent of cigarette smoke drifting slowly towards Daisy, her nose crinkled again at seeing the origin of the distasteful smell.

"I just don't see why you people feel the need to smoke all the goddamn time...I'm over here trying to breathe." Daisy muttered, kicking a stray twig away and pouting at it angrily as if it had given her offense.

"Why're you so fuckin' grumpy today, Curly?" Merle drawled, putting his cigarette out on the tree trunk behind him and meandering on over to where Daisy was standing.

Daisy sighed, "I just thought we'd get to sleep in safety last night, on the farm...And poor Glenn, I think he really thought he had a shot with Maggie. I'm not too sure about that, but she seemed to think he was funny."

Merle snorted, "Chinaman was flirtin' up a lady? And she was lettin' him?"

Daisy glared at Merle, holding his gaze for a long moment, "He's Korean...maybe just don't bring up people's ethnicities at all." She glanced over to where Daryl had gone, and saw him kneeling down behind some bushes, "Racist motherfucker..." Daisy mumbled to herself, then ushered Merle to follow after Daryl.

"Caught anything, baby brother?"

"Rabbit."

Merle groaned, it took everything Daisy had not to groan with him. Not that Daisy wasn't grateful for fresh meat...she, and all in the group, had lost a taste for dry-ass rabbit.

"Don't you go on groaning, ungrateful bastard." There was a sickening crack which made Daisy wince, and the rabbit was strung up on the line hanging over Daryl's shoulder. Daryl stood with a sigh, adjusting the line and squinting between the two thoughtfully.

"Head back to camp?" He suggested, not waiting for their answer before trudging through the mess on the forest floor.

Daisy sighed, following the Dixon brothers in a haphazard line, adjusting her shirt and wincing as the fabric stuck to her skin with her sweat; Georgian heat was not a fun experience. A low growling drifted into her ear as they walked and she looked down to the side to see a walker, its legs had been separated from its body and its left arm was missing, but that did not seem to dissuade it. Daisy stared at its snapping jaws, blackened blood was drying on its chin, it seemed weak—maybe it was the heat. Before she started sympathising with an undead creature, Daisy shook the walker from her mind and continued on after the others.

Merle suddenly spoke up, "So, whaddaya thin—"

A piercing scream cut through the air and interrupted Merle, all three snapped their heads to look in the direction the scream was echoing from.

"Th'fuck?" Merle murmured with annoyance, Daryl paid him no mind and started towards the direction they were facing with haste. With a long-suffering groan, Merle followed after his brother, and Daisy followed just behind with trepidation clouding her thoughts.

Another scream, much lower this time, filled the air. It sounded closer. They came upon a creek, it dipped low in the ground and they hastily came to a stop lest they topple over and fall down the steep decline.

"There," Merle said, his voice hard as he nodded over to a girl that Daisy saw was lying on the dirt by the creek, on the opposite side to them. Narrowing her gaze, Daisy could see a smattering of red blood dotting the girl's pale hair. Unceremoniously, Daryl began to edge his way down the hill, hands grabbing tightly onto thin trees that dotted the ground, "C'mon, Daryl, ain't anyone we know!"

"Augh, let's go—he'll probably need our help to get her up." Daisy gulped as she began to follow after Daryl, heart jumping in her chest as she slipped on a loose leaf, thankfully throwing a hand out to grip a tree before she fell. Behind her, she could hear Merle following after her, muttering snide complaints under his breath.

After a few tense minutes, all three had made their way down to the creek, Daryl on the other side after traversing the water. Steeling herself, Daisy dipped her boot into the shallow creek and felt around for the bottom, then let down her other foot. With a grimace for the integrity of her boots and jeans, Daisy shuffled through the trickling water and made her way to the other side.

A low groan came from the girl as Daryl lifted her head and peered through narrowed eyes at the blood staining her blonde hair. Daisy stepped out of the creek with a shiver at the cold seeping through her jeans and into her boots, blessing the fact that her jeans were dark and unlikely to stain from the muddy creek water—then cursing herself for worrying about such a thing while the girl was laying prone and hurt just a few feet away.

"Oh, shit," Daisy muttered as she knelt by Daryl, leaning in to study the girl's face, "She was at Hershel's farm yesterday...she must be his daughter...or something."

"She dead?" Merle asked callously from where he had snuck up behind Daisy, she glared back at him for said callousness and then looked expectantly at Daryl, wanting to know the answer herself.

"She's alive, just hit her head, looks like," Daryl mumbled with a furrowed brow, fingers on the pulse point on her wrist. The girl scrunched up her face and moaned as she stirred away from Daryl's grip on her arm.

"Hey, are you okay?" Daisy ducked her head down and stared worriedly at the girl, "What's your name?"

"Hold off on the third degree, Girly," Merle scolded, crouching down beside them, "Best we get her back to camp? Maybe that old guy'll give us food to get her back."

Daryl and Daisy simultaneously stared at him with incredulity, Daisy snapped at him, "Fuck you, Merle...we're not kidnapping her!"

After a solid minute of chiding, then a solid half hour of walking back to camp—lengthened due to Daryl having to carry an unconscious girl in his arms—the three arrived at their destination and were immediately greeted by the worried, and in some cases angered, faces of their group.

"Who's that?" Rick strode ahead of the rest to look at the girl in Daryl's arms with concern.

Daisy gasped a bit from lack of breath from their hasty walk back, then managed, "I think she's Hershel's daughter. We found her down by some creek, unconscious and bleeding from the head."

"Reckon we could trade her for shelter, some supplies at the least," Merle said with a confident grin, everyone turned to him with incredulity that mirrored that felt by Daryl and Daisy earlier—though the idea was sound, Merle's bluntness and lack of concern for the girl left much to be desired.

"Put her down in here," Carol said with some concern, directing Daryl towards the RV.

"Th'hell you thinking? Bringing some girl back to our camp?" Shane stood close to her, ducking his head to glare directly in her face, Daisy took a step back and an indignant snarl flickered across her face.

"She's unconscious for Christ's sake, I think even I'd be able to take her if worse comes to worst," Daisy scoffed at him, then continued in a harsh whisper, "What the fuck is your problem with me, anyway?"

Shane grimaced and clenched his fist, bruised knuckles turning white with the movement, "My problem is with the fact that you seem to think that any poor soul deserves our help, deserves our supplies, deserves our trust...sooner or later, that's gonna bite us all in the ass."

Before Daisy could get another word in, Rick shushed the both of them, "Everyone calm down! Shane, if this girl is Hershel's daughter, don't you think he might be grateful to have her returned safe and sound? He might trust us, help us." Rick looked at Shane imploringly, Shane grimaced once more, narrowed his eyes between Rick and Daisy, then scoffed and left without another word.

Daisy stared after him with a blank expression, then muttered under her breath, "That guy can be such a tool." She glanced towards Rick, who was staring back with pursed lips and a resigned look that seemed to agree with her.

"Daisy," Rick started with a sigh, Daisy grimaced at how he seemed so exhausted, "Can you maybe try and maintain some calm when speaking with Shane?" As Daisy began to raise her hackles, Rick raised up a hand to quiet her, "I know he's unreasonable...at times," Rick grimaced, "But he means well. Just wants the group to be safe. Be the bigger person?" He suggested hesitantly.

Daisy stared at Rick for a long moment, at the honest plea in his eyes, then said simply, "Fine. But he's still the asshole in this situation. And most situations."

A relieved smile broke Rick's serious countenance and he huffed a laugh, clapping Daisy on the shoulder in a parting gesture then following Carol, Daryl and Lori where they had entered into the RV with the unconscious girl.

Groaning lightly, Daisy ruffled a hand through her loose curls then looked around the camp. It was a dismal sight—two cars and an RV parked in an old campsite against the tree line with a small rock-lined campfire off to the side, a few people gathered around it in camp chairs and on the dirty ground in the absence of a free seat. She meandered on over to the campfire and sat on the ground by Amy's feet, greeting Carl beside her with a friendly elbow in the ribs.

"Ugh, hey!" Carl protested, elbowing her back—Daisy decided to take Rick's advice and be the bigger person, not elbowing him again, she smirked at her irreverent thoughts.

"Who was that girl?" Daisy tilted her head to see Amy who had spoken softly, she was looking down with a soft smile, the most she seemed able to manage after her sister's untimely death. Around her, Daisy could also see the others looking on in interest, only Carl and Sophia continued to speak and giggle amongst themselves.

"The vet who patched T up," Daisy nodded towards the aforementioned man where he sat across from them sipping on a mug of what Daisy guessed was coffee, "I think she's his daughter. We found her by some creek, unconscious...hoping to patch her up, maybe garner some trust from Hershel."

"What luck, this girl has been injured and presented herself as our salvation..." Dale said hesitantly, brow furrowed.

Daisy defended herself, "It's not like we injured her...so what if us helping her happens to also help us?"

"Calm down with the moral dilemmas, Dale," Glenn interjected with a nervous laugh, the rest of the group gathered cracked a smile, even Dale, though his was slightly self-deprecating.

"I suppose you're right, Glenn."

"I often am," Glenn replied assertively, smile widening to offset his haughty tone.

"So, we are gonna stay at the farm after all?" Sophia piped up hesitantly, gaze searching Daisy intently.

Daisy hummed with some reluctance clouding her thoughts, "Maybe. It depends on whether Hershel trusts us, which might be a bit if we return his daughter back to him safely...and we will. Do that, I mean."

"That would be nice," Amy spoke again suddenly, her stare drifted off to look at nothing and she turned thoughtful, "I've always wanted to live on a farm. With the...animals, the sun." She closed her eyes and sighed as she leant her head back against the camp chair she was slumped in. The others hummed in agreement, including Daisy—she thought a nice, relaxing stay at a farm would be a nice change from the bullshit she had come to expect as regular in this new world. To not have to worry every second of every day, that was the dream.