So sorry for the wait! I've been busy preparing for finals which are next week! D:
Thank you to all my reviewers and supporters! I really appreciate everything!
I've also learned that I should stop promising things, since this is NOT the final chapter. Again. *sigh*
-Time Skip-
"Sophia!"
The surrounding flora fluttered with the breeze in response, but otherwise no reply came.
Daryl set his jaw and muttered a curse under his breath before continuing on his original path through the woods, eyes and ears straining for any sign of the 12-year old.
'Girl's gotta be out here holed up somewhere.'
The blonde redneck raised his crossbow and checked the ground and nearby bushes for any signs that Sophia had been through there. It had been three hours now and so far there had been no sign of the girl. Again.
"Sophia!" He called again, highly aware that he risked attracting Walkers.
When he got no response, the man started forward again, determined to find the little girl and maybe even redemption for himself. As he searched, he thought of how Sophia would have loved the farm they were staying at. He'd been skeptical about the family that owned the farm at first, but pretty soon he blocked them out, only focusing on finding Carol's little girl.
SNAP!
With lightning quick reflexes, Daryl pivoted 90 degrees to his left, crossbow aiming into a clump of dense briar. Everything around him fell away; even the heat of the day no longer bothered him. The birds squawked before flying away, squirrels screeched alarm calls before scattering into the trees, leaving the whole forest silent as death.
Another shallow breath escaped his barely parted lips, muscles tense and trained reflexes at their peak. Seconds later, another snap was followed by the shuffle of footsteps. The blonde gripped his weapon tighter as a low moan sounded from the moving bushes. Then itstepped out – blood trailing along its arms and legs with skin dangling from the neck and upper arms – slowly. It appeared to have been a female doctor with once-bright red hair and probably a nice smile. The stethoscope still hung around it's chewed up throat and it still had the lab coat from God-knows-when she was infected.
The Walker let out a hungry groan and stumbled towards him feverishly – black and red fingers reaching out and mouth agape in anticipation. Daryl took aim between the eyes and prepared to pull the trigger, but stopped short when he spotted something blue stuck onto the thing's fingernail. Suddenly, a thousand images of Sophia being caught and devoured savagely by the Walker flashed through Daryl's mind, pulling out the reckless anger that prowled through his inner being.
"Fuckin' skank!" He snarled as he squeezed the trigger, hitting it right in the middle of the forehead. It's decomposing body collapsed instantly onto the forest floor, but it wasn't enough. Furious, Daryl stormed over and kicked the Walker's head, twisting it around halfway and snapping the neck bones loudly. He began attacking the corpse with vicious vigor, beating the face in with the butt of his crossbow, snapping arms and legs with his boot, and brutally kicking the torso until the Walker looked as if it had been thrown in front of a train.
"Poxy-ridden bitch." He spat after retrieving his arrow before trudging in the direction the Walker had come. Daryl felt anxiety overloading him as his mind kept flashing back to the same blue fabric in the Walker's nails as Sophia's shirt. The blonde shook his head fiercely; desperately trying to ignore the gut-wrenching feeling that image gave him.
'She's gonna be jus' fine, stop bein' such a pussy with worryin'.' He admonished inwardly.
Daryl ignored the irritating tickle of sweat gathering on his neck, focusing only on his surroundings, searching for any kind of sign. After ten minutes, he finally found something, making his so-called heart of ice pulse excitedly. A dirty blue piece of fabric clung onto the thorn bush, obviously snagged from the previous Walker when it stumbled through.
He searched around for any signs of a scuffle or blood, but found none, which relieved him greatly. The determined redneck continued along the track, his sky blue eyes scanning for that familiar red hair and freckled face.
"Sophia?" He called out. "It's Daryl."
It frustrated him to not hear a response for the billionth time that day, but Daryl was a Dixon and Dixons don't quit.
"C'mon Lima-Bean, if yer hidin' somewhere you can come out now. Ain't nothin' here 'cept me."
There was a sudden rustling to his right, but he knew from experience it wasn't Sophia or a Walker. The blonde jumped to the left and whipped out his buck knife, quickly catching sight of the cottonmouth as it opened it's famed mouth and let out a shrill hiss. Daryl was surprised to find a cottonmouth here, especially so far from any water source that he knew of. He wasn't extremely worried though, because he'd had his fair share of run-ins with other snakes, both harmless and deadly.
The snake hissed again and struck towards his foot, but earned a hard kick in the mouth that sent it skidding across the ground. While it was stunned, he pressed his boot on its neck and swiftly dispatched the head and kicked it away. The mouth remained open and its tongue flicked a bit as death began to catch up with the brain. He'd learned the hard way when he was nine that even if you cut off the head, it can still bite and inject the venom stored in the cavities above the fangs. Luckily for little Daryl Dixon, it had been a harmless corn snake, but the pain quickly earned the ire of his younger self, resulting in the fangs being cut out and fashioned as a prized bracelet he'd worn till his father beat him near unconsciousness and ripped it off.
"Dumbass." He smirked, "Ain't smart ta sneak up on a Dixon."
He worked quickly, carefully cutting out the two fangs and draining the venom before wedging them between the braided leather of his bracelet.
"This one's for you. I picked it out by the quarry one day. It matches your eyes, I think."
Once finished, Daryl followed the bloody trail leading to wherever the Geek had come from. The blonde threaded carefully through the undergrowth, not very keen on being bit by a venomous snake and rendered completely helpless in the forest. He skillfully vaulted over a rotting log, unaware of the corpse lying directly on the other side.
"Shit!" He hissed as his feet tripped over the rotten thing's body, sending him tumbling to the leaf-littered ground beside the undead carcass. The Dixon brother cursed violently as he rolled away from the prone Walker and whipped out his knife, coiled and ready to strike. A split second before he buried the blade into its skull, Daryl realized that it had already been brutally stabbed between the eyes, which were staring at him through a milky film.
"The hell?" He prodded the corpse with his boot, but it didn't rise or groan, just laid there and rotted in the heat.
'Someone's out here.' He mused. The blonde swung his crossbow over his shoulder and poised the blade so that if there were any "living" Walkers nearby he wouldn't be completely defenseless.
'Small blade, but deep puncture…' Daryl continued to inspect the body, eventually gripping the filthy, blood-soaked shirt and rolling it onto its back. There were a few slash marks running across its rotted chest, jagged and amateurishly executed.
'Whoever it was must'a been caught off guard…' He eyed the hole between the eyes again. 'They have a good thrust though.'
As he stood, Daryl got the nagging feeling that he was missing something, something important, but the vital thought danced away and he just shook his head and searched the surrounding area for any more fabric or something of Sophia's. When he found nothing, the blonde continued on his original path, but stopped short when something moved nearby. Crossbow ready, Daryl listened and waited, acutely aware that the forest had not gone silent as it did whenever a Walker came through. Hope bubbled in his chest and a strange impulse to run forward seized him for only a moment before passing.
A second later, a fat doe picked her way into the less crowded area of the forest, only about ten yards away from his location. He was suddenly glad he hadn't ran forward and frightened off a good meal for the group.
"S' now you're their lil' bitch?" Merle's voice rasped through Daryl's subconscious.
"Ain't nobody's bitch!" He snarled as he took aim and prepared to take down the doe before it bounded off.
"Hnf, if that ain't the biggest piece a' shit. Why th' hell you even out here baby brother? Searchin' for some dumb bitch's daughter? She ain't yer kin."
The younger brother gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger, producing a clean shot through the brain, which meant no tracking the beast down. He swung the crossbow over his shoulder and unsheathed the buck knife attached to his belt loop and quickly cut away the glands on the back legs. It was getting close to mating season and the glands would only rile up a nearby buck and give Daryl more trouble than he needed.
After positioning the doe around his neck fireman style, the blonde began trudging in the direction of the farm, silently apologizing to wherever Sophia was in that Godforsaken forest that he would be out there early the next morning.
"Since when did you become such a damn woman?"
Daryl groaned and tried to block out his older brother's manifested voice, but it was nearly impossible.
"So you're out 'ere bustin' yer ass for some lil girl? I thought I taught you better bro."
"I ain't leavin her! Someone's gotta look for her, might as well be me, seein' as I'm the only one who knows how to track." Merle's voice chuckled.
"So you leave yer big brother fer dead in Atlanta? But you risk your sorry ass for someone else's kid? What I tell you 'bout feelings lil' brother?"
The inward conversation gave Daryl a strange feeling, making him wonder if this was how people about to go mad felt.
"We went back for ya you dipshit. Rick and T-Dog and that Chinaman. You're th' one who left."
Merle's voice growled menacingly. "Watch it boy. An did I jus' hear you call that motherfuckin' piece a' shit by name?"
Daryl fought the urge to reply, reasoning with his redneck knowledge that if he kept this up, he'd either walk right into a Walker or go completely insane. Of course, that didn't stop the manifested voice from echoing throughout his mind almost the whole way to the farm.
Glenn was on watch when Daryl's figure appeared from the tree line, the kid letting out a relieved sigh before calling out that Daryl was back. The doe around his shoulders caught the Korean's eye, making his stomach gurgle loudly and his mouth water. The strange thing was, he was a bit squeamish and had told himself in the past he would never eat venison or any other wild critter. He realized that this new, ugly world had made him somewhat of a hypocrite.
"Hey, want some help?" He called out as he jogged towards the blonde eagerly. He avoided using the word 'need', sensing that it would anger the Dixon brother in some way.
Daryl shifted the deer's weight a bit before grunting, "Nah, but I'd much appreciate th' help guttin' it." He smirked slightly as he said this, knowing full well how weak a stomach the boy tended to have.
"Oh…uh well I've never – uh I've never-." He jumped at Daryl's badly suppressed laughter. "Tell ya what Ramen boy, you keep Shane outta my face while I get things ready and I'll show ya how ta field dress this gal." He patted the doe's haunch as he said this before pushing past Glenn and marching towards the house, his gate a little less shuffled than before.
"Shane! Daryl's back!" Carl cried out.
The deputy raised his eyes to meet Carl's surprisingly hopeful gaze. "Yeah, I heard. Why don't you go inside and let your mom know."
Rick's son disappeared inside and Shane looked out across the field to spot Daryl striding towards the house with a deer across his shoulders. Shane snorted and began to make his way towards the blonde, but was suddenly intercepted by Glenn.
'Where the hell did he come from?'
"Hey Shane, do you think you could help me go pick up some wood I left over by my tent?" He began, his strangely shaped blade attached to his belt loop dangling comfortably.
"Uh, why do you need my help? Can't you carry 'em yourself?"
Glenn shook his head, "Wow, thanks Shane. You just made me sound like some poor kid who's never lifted anything heavier than a videogame controller."
Shane rolled his eyes, obviously not amused, but agreed to help out the kid and trudged after him, looking back from time to time, finally catching Daryl's eye just as Rick came out from around the house. The smirk the blonde gave him made his blood boil and he realized that Daryl had been well aware he would try to confront him.
"…If I can carry ten or more pizzas at a time, I am totally capable of carrying wood." Glenn rambled on. "So imagine how much wood there must be for a professional pizza guy to need to ask for help."
Shane looked about ready to explode, so Glenn shut up and led him to where the "wood pile" was. When they got there, there were only a few broken twigs left, which were in truth, from the woodpile two days ago.
"I thought you said there was wood to be picked up?" Shane growled.
"There was!" The boy exclaimed, thinking fast. "Dale or someone else must have been up here and decided to take it back to the house."
The deputy paced for two seconds before something clicked in his brain: it had all been a diversion. He gave Glenn a nasty glare, but the kid merely shrugged his shoulders innocently and tried to quell the twitching at the corners of his mouth.
Without a word, Shane stormed back to the house, leaving Glenn to finally let out the laughter he'd been holding back. What made it so funny, was the fact that it took Shane all the way out to his tent for him to realize what had happened.
"Uhh…Daryl? Y-you sure you wanna teach me how to gut a deer?" Glenn stuttered.
Said blonde didn't reply, but instead gave him a somewhat reassuring look – if that's what you could call it. Daryl wasn't too good at reassuring people.
"Ok kid, first question: where do we start cuttin'?" Glenn's expression went to that of someone thinking hard.
"Um, the chest?" Before Daryl could say no, he redeemed himself. "Wait! I mean above where the intestines are! Right?"
"Close enough. Now, you wanna start cuttin' here, between the legs." He spread the doe's hind legs farther apart. "She's already gone stiff, so this'll be a bit tougher, but more fun."
Daryl told Glenn to get on his knees beside him as he demonstrated how to begin cutting, being careful not to puncture any organs, especially the intestines. The former pizza boy's eyes were glued to Daryl's work, the little voice in his head screaming for him to look away disappearing.
"Ok, see this here?" The Dixon brother pointed to a small sac under the layer of hide. Glenn nodded his head. "Well, that there is her milk bag. We're gonna cut it out so we can see what we're doin'."
Daryl told Glenn to hold back the hide as he cut around the milk bag, surprised that he didn't have to grab the kid's hands and force him to do it. Once that was done, the blonde handed the Asian his knife and instructed him how to hold the weapon.
"Now, I'm gonna stick my two fingers right under th' muscle and skin layer an' pull it upwards." He pointed to Glenn. "Your job is ta carefully cut towards the ribcage. Be sure to keep your cuts upwards, otherwise you'll puncture a gut and I don' wanna have the women on my ass about smellin' like shit."
Glenn swallowed and took a deep breath before doing as instructed. It wasn't as hard as he'd thought it would be, and pretty soon he felt more confident. Daryl watched the young man out of the corner of his eye, a strange feeling of pride welling up inside him. He fought it down and continued to keep the skin raised, secretly praying the kid didn't cut anything he wasn't supposed to.
"Ok, I think I see the ribs, now what?"
"Now you're gonna cut around the ribs in a Y shape. Th' sternum's too tough for that knife, and I ain't gonna dull my blade on somethin' we can easily go around."
Glenn nodded his head more steadily and without even realizing it, moved his hands where Daryl's were and began cutting around the ribs on his own.
'Well damn, didn't think th' kid would take it up that quick.' Daryl thought.
Glenn wiped the sweat from his brow and Daryl decided they take a break. The former pizza boy took a swig from his water canteen and offered some to his companion. The redneck took it with a nod and finished it off before tossing the empty canteen back to the young man. They didn't speak, deciding it best to just sit there in the grass with nothing but a dead deer, a knife, and the Georgia sun above.
"So…what's next?" Daryl chuckled throatily and gave the Asian a look. "Huh, didn't think balls grew that fast."
Glenn protested and gave the blonde's leg a good kick. Daryl threw him a mock scowl and punched the kid's arm before getting back on his knees by the doe.
"Alright, now we get t' the good part. Guttin' her." A grossed out look flickered across the Asian's face before determination set in. "Don' worry, not much cuttin' except for what keeps the organs attached."
"So we just pull them out?" Daryl nodded. "Yep."
The thought gave Glenn a strong sense of déjà vu, bringing him back to Atlanta when he and Rick had gutted and chopped up a Walker to disguise their scent.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. A.K.A. GUTS AND GORE. SKIP IF NEEDED.
The younger Dixon started first, reaching inside and pulling out a handful of intestines, completely unfazed by the squishing sounds the organs made in protest. He held out his hand and Glenn passed him the buck knife, still watching intently as the blonde sliced the slimy cords away. Once those cords were gone, Daryl slipped the intestines out and tossed them aside without a second thought.
When he motioned for the young man to get closer, Glenn obeyed, eyeing the dead organs without scrunching his face up in disgust. The blonde pointed to a mass of organs that appeared to be fused together, but were really lying over each other perfectly as was nature's design.
While Daryl held the knife, Glenn reached in with both hands and scooped the excessively slimy mass into his hands and pulled, quickly feeling the resisting tug of the cords attached. Wordlessly, the knife was placed into his waiting hand and with concentrating eyes he sliced away the attachments. The organs simultaneously made suctioning sounds as they were pulled into the outside world and placed with the pile of intestines.
"What was all that?" He finally asked.
"That was her stomach, liver, kidneys, and all that other crap." He gestured towards the empty abdominal cavity. "Nice cuttin', no hesitation either. Maybe you'll survive out here after all Chinaman."
Glenn rolled his eyes. "Uh thanks? And will you stop calling me that? I'm Korean."
The Dixon brother shook his head and popped his neck loudly. "Nah, I think Chinaman sounds better than Chopsticks."
When the kid was about to make a remark, he was waved off. "C'mon pizza boy, you still got the diaphragm to cut through. Then ya gotta cut out the heart, lungs, and th' windpipe."
He was met with a confused Glenn. "Why the windpipe?"
"Because it's thick and in the way of th' good stuff, now git over here and finish the job."
The young Asian didn't say anything else and instead took the bloody knife and began cutting into the chest cavity, faintly remembering his Anatomy classes back in high school. Daryl's piercing blue eyes watched the kid's every move, prepared to backhand him if he screwed up. After about three minutes the diaphragm was shredded and pulled away to reveal two deflated lungs and one motionless heart.
"Sorry girl, don't think you'll be needin' these anymore." Glenn stated as he reached in and dragged out the lungs and attached heart. It took a bit longer to cut out the connected organs, due to the much thicker cords that held them to the ribs and muscles.
He flinched once when a spurt of darkening blood spat onto his cheek, but other than that the kid was unfazed. Even the loud, slurping and gurgling noises the organs made as he pulled them farther and farther didn't seem to bother him. Finally, with one last cut, the lungs and heart came free and were dumped onto the gut pile with the others.
END GRAPHIC CONTENT.
"Well that's the last of it. Right Daryl?" He asked while wiping his forehead on the sleeve of his T-shirt.
"Yep." The blonde drawled as he clapped a bloody hand onto the Korean's shoulder. "Now we jus' hafta skin it an' cook the meat." He took back his knife and returned it to the sheath attached to his pants. "Maybe I'll use th' skin to make a warm coat or somethin'. I'd bet my dinner th' women'll go batshit crazy over wantin' to make boots or some shit like that with it."
Glenn laughed and agreed with the redneck. The pile of guts caught his eye and he wondered what they'd do with a bunch of rotten innards.
"Uh, what are we going to do with all this….stuff?"
Just as Daryl opened his mouth, Carl's voice rang out from the direction of the house, making both men turn to see the boy jogging over.
"Hey! Are you guys cutting it open?" He asked with that innocent curiosity.
Daryl narrowed his eyes and pointed towards the house, "Git yer ass in th' house boy. This ain't somethin' for children t' see."
The young boy stopped about five yards away, but his frustrated pout could still be seen. "Aw c'mon guys! I'm not just some little kid!"
He looked to Glenn for help since it was obvious he wasn't going to get it from Daryl. The former pizza boy shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "Sorry kiddo, I really don't think your mom would appreciate us showin' you this stuff."
The poor kid looked like he was about to get on his hands and knees begging. "My mom doesn't have to know! Please? I'll do anything! I just wanna hang out with you guys and do something cool!"
The two men exchanged glances and when the kid turned to leave, Daryl told him to stay right where he was. The blonde tried to think of something the kid could do that wouldn't leave him with Lori bitchin' in his ear. Suddenly a wicked idea came to him and the more he thought about it, the more it seemed so perfect that even Lori Grimes would be laughin' her ass off.
Glenn was surprised when Daryl called the boy over, and even more surprised by how fascinated Carl was with the gutted deer and pile of innards rotting in the sun.
"Ok kid, you wanna do something cool?" Carl nodded his head eagerly, the sheriff's hat tipping over his eyes. "Alright, all ya gotta do is two things. First, ya gotta go into th' house and ask Hershel for a bucket and trash bag."
Glenn watched as the kid's eyes got wide with excitement. "But, what if he asks why I need 'em?"
Daryl tipped the hat up higher on Carl's head. "Aw hell, yer smart. Tell him the truth if ya want, but if yer mom's nearby just make somethin' up."
Carl nodded his head and waited for the second job.
"After ya bring us the bucket, go and find Andrea. Tell 'er you have a surprise for her an' she has to follow you with her eyes closed." Glenn couldn't help but smirk at the man's plan.
"When you bring her out here, have her hold out her hands s' you can give 'er the surprise."
Carl nodded his head, saluted them, and shot off like a rocket for the house. They both grinned, but Daryl couldn't ignore the sharp pang he'd felt when the kid had saluted to them. It reminded him way too much of Sophia, which would only sour his mood if he continued to think about how she was still out there. Alone.
"Dude, where did you come up with this prank?" Glenn asked animatedly.
The younger Dixon snorted, "Andrea may be one tough blonde, but she can be such a woman sometimes. 'Specially with guts an' all that shit."
He didn't bother to explain how the idea spawned from back when Sophia first disappeared and he and Andrea had gone out in the middle of the night to search for her. They found some poor idiot who'd hung himself in a tree, turning him but leaving himself as one big piñata. He'd only been observing out loud how other Geeks had eaten off all the flesh on his legs, but she puked a bit anyway. He told her it was payback for laughing about his itchy ass, but this was extended payback.
Glenn held up his hands and looked at them. "Should we wash this off?" He asked.
The blonde glanced at his own, blood-caked hands and shrugged. "Not now. Gonna git mine dirty soon as that kid comes back with Blondie." When Glenn didn't seem to understand, he gestured towards the gut pile and the kid instantly understood.
Carl's heart thumped in his chest as he ran up the porch steps and into the house. His sudden entrance startled Maggie and Patricia, who were prepping the table for dinner.
"Whoa! Hold yer horses little man. What's got you so riled up?" Patricia questioned while Maggie went back to cleaning the table.
"I'm lookin' for Hershel, you seen him?"
Patricia looked a bit puzzled. "He's upstairs at the moment. Why? Is somethin' wrong?"
He shook his head, "Nope. Thanks Tricia!" Rick's son sped off for the stairs, leaving Maggie and Patricia a bit dazed.
Carl stomped up the stairs like a 5-year old, calling out for Hershel repeatedly. A few moments later, the older man stepped out of a nearby door and looked down at the boy with a slightly irritated expression.
"What is it son?" He asked while staring down his reading glasses.
Carl adjusted his hat. "I came to ask if Glenn and Daryl could borrow a bucket and trash bag."
Hershel stood silent for a moment, eyeing the boy suspiciously. "They need it for the deer guts. They didn't wanna come ask themselves cuz they got blood on 'em."
The older man sighed, took off his readers and gestured for the boy to follow him. They entered the kitchen and he asked Maggie to hand him a trash bag. She glanced at Patricia with confusion but handed him the black bag anyway. Hershel handed the bag to Carl and they walked outside and around the house where quite a few buckets were stashed.
"Be sure they clean the bucket and bring it back as soon as they're done alright?"
Carl nodded and took the bucket before sprinting back over to where Daryl and Glenn were standing.
"Good job squirt, now go git Andrea and remember what I told ya."
He nodded and decided to check the R.V first, confident Dale would know where to find her.
So? Was it worth the wait? I sure hope so!
Leave a review or at least a fav to boost my motivation so that I can write faster (and do better on my finals.) xD