Chapter 4
Notes: To those who complained that Charlotte trusts to easily and Daryl "got over her" too quickly, remember Charlotte has Gavin, and those of you who have dogs probably know that dogs are really good judges of character. As for Daryl "getting over" her, this chapter is for you ^_^
Daryl awoke in the stillness of the early morning, his shivering breath hung silvery in the still, cold air; last night's bed had been a sleeping bag on the hard floor of a deer stand. It was so cold this morning that it made it hard to breathe, even the sun was slow to wake as it reluctantly made its appearance over the mountains.
It had snowed all day yesterday, but Mother Nature had taken pity on him and the fact that the deer stand offered little shelter from the elements, and the sky had cleared by night fall. The downside to this, however was that the temperature had plummeted to well below zero. As Daryl prepared to make the decent and head back to camp, he heard a noise in the forest, just inside the tree line, out of his line of sight.
He waited, keeping still and silent, it wasn't a walker, there was no shuffling gait or telltale groans, which meant it had to be some kind of animal, Daryl readied his crossbow, and waited for it to make its appearance.
It was a bull elk in all his splendor, but it was his color that took Daryl's breath away, he was such a pure shade of white that the surrounding snow seemed dull in comparison. Daryl lowered his crossbow, he knew the code, he had heard the stories the Indians used to tell, about how grave misfortune befell anyone who killed a white animal and being the superstitious man he was, he wasn't about to tempt fate.
Besides, Charlotte wouldn't have wanted him to. The grief and sadness pierced his heart and soul like an icicle as his eyes welled up with tears. He put on a good front for the group, but he wasn't over her, not by a longshot, and he didn't know if he ever would be. He had never loved anyone so completely in his life, because he had never let anyone get close, and he never would again.
Then, as if sensing his thoughts, the elk craned his head back and looked directly into Daryl's eyes. His eyes were a piercing blue and Daryl could swear he could feel them boring into his soul, exposing all the pain, anguish, and grief. The elk took a few deep sniffs and exhaled, his silvery breath lingering in front of him, adding to his majesty. Then, in three elegant leaps, he disappeared into the snowy forest landscape; it was then Daryl released the breath he didn't even realize he was holding.
"Anything?" Rick asked Daryl as he returned.
"Nothin' but a bunch of rabbits, too cold for anything else to be wonderin' around." Daryl replied as he gave the rabbits to Michonne and Maggie.
"How ya doin'?" Rick said, then braced for the onslaught of anger and hostility that question usually produced.
Daryl's bright blue eyes flashed with anger for a split second, but he merely shrugged. "As as anyone I guess." He said flatly.
Rick nodded to Daryl as he watched him walk away; he felt a pang of empathy for the man. Even in his walk it was clear, he had lost a piece of himself that day, a piece he would never get back.
Daryl started back out before sunrise, and before even Rick was awake. He had always found comfort and peace in the solitude of the wilderness, even more so now that there was no one for him to come home to anymore. He had wanted to go back, after things had died down, and Rick had to knock him unconscious to stop him.
The day had gotten warm enough for last night's snow to start to melt and Daryl estimated it might get close to forty today, if they didn't get any new snowfall, the snow would be fully melted by the weekend. It was late February, and winter was slowly beginning to lose its grip on the landscape.
It was then he heard it, distant shouting and sounds of a commotion drifted over the still winter air. Without even thinking about it, he took off into a full run towards the origin of the sound. He could smell them before he saw them, even in the cold weather, that was the one bad thing about winter ending, is that the warmer it got, the more mobile the walkers got, as well.
It wasn't a huge herd, but it was enough to overpower two men and back them up against a fence at an old Walmart distribution center.
"HEY!" Daryl bellowed as he burst through the tree line. "Over here, you ugly sumbitches!" He said, the entire herd turned toward him with a collective groan. Daryl skipped along the fence, scrapping his hunting knife back and forth.
"That's it, come on, fresh fuckin' meat right here." He said as he lured them away from the two men. "Hey! You got shit in your drawers or what?! Get over the fuckin' fence!" Daryl bellowed as he kicked the fence to antagonize the walkers and keep their attention.
The two men clamored over the fence and landed in a heap at the bottom. "Oh god! Thank you! We'd have been dead for sure if you hadn't happened along!" One of them said as he stood up only to come face to face with the point of an arrow.
"Awww Geeze!" He said, his voice quivering as both of them put their hands in the air.
"Look! We don't mean any harm! We were on a scouting mission and got overrun!" The other man said.
"Scouting mission? You from a group?" Daryl asked his finger tightened around the trigger of the crossbow.
"Yes! Yes but it's not what you think! This is a township! A community with good people! It's called Alexandria! We are scouts! Our job is to go out and find people! People like you that know how to live and survive so you can teach others!" The first man said, Daryl noticed his hands were beginning to shake, he imagined from fear. These weren't killers, hell, he didn't even think they could kill a rabbit, even if they had to.
"Name's Daryl." He said as he lowered his crossbow and slung it back over his shoulder.
"I'm Aaron, and this is Eric. Pleased to meet you, even if it is under these circumstances." Aaron said with a nervous laugh, trying to break the tension between the three men. Daryl said nothing as he led the way.
"Wait … where are we going? Our town is back that way." Eric said as he had to almost trot to keep up with Daryl's pace.
"Our group leader, Rick's gonna wanna talk to you." Daryl said expressionlessly as he trudged on.
"Group?" you mean there's … more of you?" Aaron said.
"You're gonna have to talk to Rick." Daryl repeated coldly, and the two men thought it best not to push the subject, and elected to make the remainder of the trip in silence.
"Rick!" Daryl bellowed at the law man from fifty feet away, Rick turned around and his hand instinctually went to his .357, ever present at his hip when he saw Daryl wasn't alone.
"What the hell is this, Daryl?" Rick said in a low voice as others in the group started to take notice of the two strangers in Daryl's company.
"Tell em what you told me." Daryl said as he grabbed hold of Aaron's arm and thrusted him forward before Rick.
"We have a town, a community called Alexandria. Eric and I are scouts, we go out and look for people, people who know how to survive, people like you all." He said as he looked around the group as it gathered around. Their hunch was right, these were tough people, and they looked like they had been through a lot.
"Why don't you sit tight while we talk it over?" Rick said as he motioned for the group to huddle in.
"I say let's do it, if things turn out bad, we can handle ourselves." Michonne said.
"I agree, let's give it a shot." Maggie agreed
"Hell yeah! Fuck it, what we got to lose?" Abraham thundered, a huge smile on his face.
Rick laughed in spite of himself as he returned to the two men.
"Lead the way." He said.
Rick and the others were speechless as the person on watch opened the gate for Eric and Aaron and they followed them inside. It was like the apocalypse never happened; there were houses, well-manicured yards, and people walking down the street, just like back when the world was right.
Daryl and Rick shared a suspicious look as Aaron stopped and turned around.
"You're going to have to speak with Deanna, that's her house, the largest one at the end of the street on the left, just knock, she is expecting you." He said as he left their company.
"Well, let's get this over with." Abraham said as he pushed passed everyone and walked toward the large house at the end of the street. Daryl shrugged as he and the others followed him, Rick brought up the rear, a pained look on his face.
Abraham and Daryl walked up the porch stairs, and the door to the house opened before they even got a chance to knock. Out stepped a woman of about sixty or so, with brown jaw length hair and a soft, friendly expression.
"Ahhh yes, Rick is it? Please! Come in." She said as she motioned for all of them to come inside.
"My name is Deanna Monroe, and this is my husband, Reginald." She said as everyone shook hands.
"Please to meet all of you, you can call me Reg, everyone does." Her husband said, he seemed like a genuine, friendly man with good intentions … then again … so did a lot of people. As the group exchanged pleasantries, they heard the door slam behind them.
"Ahh! That must be Aiden and Spencer. Come into the living room, boys, I have some people I want you to meet." Deanna said.
Two young men entered, they were filthy and they looked exhausted.
"It's getting bad out there, mom. We can hardly get near the city anymore." One of them said, Rick assumed he was the older of the two brothers.
"Well, You aren't going to have to worry about that anymore, boys, I would like you do meet Rick Grimes and his group." Aaron and Eric met up with them on a scouting mission after Daryl saved them from being overrun." Deanna said as she gestured to Daryl, who suddenly found himself wishing he could disappear.
"It's nice to meet all of you, boy we could sure use the help of someone who knows how it is out there." Spencer said as he and his brother shook all of their hands.
"Now, you all must be exhausted," Deanna said as she picked up her radio. "go for Olivia."
After a moment, a woman's voice came over the line. "Yes ma'am."
"Please come over to my house, I have some new arrivals that need a place to stay." Deanna said.
"Be right there." The other voice said as the radio went dead.
"Olivia will show you the houses we have available, you all can decide amongst yourselves and take your pick." Deanna said as she flashed them all a friendly, warm smile.
As if on que, they heard a knock at the door.
"It's open, Olivia." Deanna called, a short, heavy set woman with thick, dark rimmed glasses made her appearance. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back into a messy bun.
"Olivia, I would like you to meet Rick and his group, they have been on the outside, trying to survive for some time now, please show them to the houses we have available and make them feel welcome, they have been through a lot." Deanna said as she motioned for them to follow her.
"Here they are, I know they mostly look the same, this was a sub-division, and they are usually all about conformity." Olivia said as she gestured to a row of houses, she was right, they did look the same, at least on the outside.
"You all can talk amongst yourselves which ones you want. I'm Olivia by the way, I run the armory and the pantry. If you need anything, just ask." She said as she nodded awkwardly to them and left them to it.
"Well?" Rick asked as he looked to his group.
"I think I'm gonna take that one, I'm too tired to give a shit anyway." Abraham said as he strode to the first house, Michonne chuckled as she took the one next to it, then so on and so forth until there was only one left.
"Well … I guess this one is ours." Rick said to Carl.
"First one to the door gets the shower first!" Carl said suddenly as he shoved his father back and took off at a run toward the house.
"Hey! …" Rick yelled as he took off after his son.
Daryl tossed his gear carelessly onto the sofa and trudged wearily to the bathroom, peeling his clothes off as he went. He turned the shower on and was surprised to find hot water coming out of the hot side of the tap. He turned on the cold water just enough so that the water didn't scald his skin and stepped under the water with a satisfied sigh. He could feel all the stress and tension washing away with the layers of grime, and dirt as he reached for the soap.
He knew he couldn't stay in there long, they had to conserve water and power, so he cleansed himself and shut the water off. He pulled back the curtain and reached for a towel, feeling better than he could remember feeling in a long time.
But it was still there, that ache that penetrated straight to his very soul, the ache from the hole in his soul they Charlotte's death left. Andrea had been right, the hurt never goes away, you really do just make room for it.