Newly Revised

Early the next morning, Daryl took Beth out to teach her how to track after she asked him if he was still willing to show her how. While teaching wasn't his forte, Beth proved to be an excellent student, even if the trail was obvious. He'd shown her how to properly hold the bow, too, even having her fire off a few practice rounds in the knot of a tree. She wasn't the best shot in the world but if she could be pretty decent if she kept practicing. Daryl had pointed out a trail not long after that and told her all she needed to know to point it out. Beth had actually surprised him with how quickly she was able to pick up on what he'd told her and been able to put it into practice. Then again, it wasn't like she was completely helpless or defenseless or hadn't learned things quickly since the beginning. She had barely known anything about taking care of a baby and yet she'd been helping look after Judith since the baby had been born. And now she was following the shallow trail of a walker and making good progress on coming up on the damn thing.

Daryl wondered if Merle felt proud of him like this when he'd taught him how to track after his dad had shown him the basics of hunting. It had been the only way they'd been able to eat for a long time, and the only thing that helped him survive his home life. Merle might have run off or got into enough trouble to go to juvie, he had been helpful a few times. They hadn't had the best or easiest of lives and they'd been fending for themselves for the majority of it. Merle had done his best to make sure he knew how to take care of himself before he got locked up the first time. Daryl missed his brother almost as much as he missed Ani and teaching the girl was making him think of Merle a lot. In fact, what he'd told Beth about her feet had been the exact same thing Merle had told him, just without the cussing.

"Are we close?" she asked him.

"Almost done," he answered.

"How do you know?"

"The signs are all there. You just gotta know how to read 'em."

"What are we tracking?" she asked after lowering the bow.

"You tell me," he told her. "You're the one that wanted to learn."

She looked around, "Well, somethin' came through here." She moved over to where the obvious trail was mucked through the leaves, "The trail's all zig-zaggy. It's a walker!"

"Maybe it's a drunk," Daryl mused.

Beth smiled proudly to herself as she raised the crossbow back up and continued on, "I'm getting good at this. Pretty soon I won't need you at all."

"Yeah, keep on trackin'," he told her, gesturing down the trail.

The trail eventually lead out into a small break in the trees only a few feet wide, but sitting in the middle was a walker with its back to them. It was clearly eating something and it didn't even notice their presence as they came up behind it. Beth had gotten pretty good at being quiet between now and when they'd run from the prison. He had been annoyed to no end when they first started out and she was stomping all over the place. She'd started doing better with it after he told her that if she wanted to learn to hunt, she needed to shut her feet up. Whatever was out there to eat would hear her coming from a mile away with how she walked like a damn elephant through the trees. They'd scurry away before she ever saw them and she'd never get nothing to eat all because she made too much sound. Ever since, she had been more careful of where she stepped and even seemed to be trying to walk lighter.

"It's got a gun," Beth said quietly to Daryl, who just gestured at her to take the shot.

Daryl stood back and let Beth take the shot herself as he watched, though he was ready to step in if he needed to. Beth slowly moved towards the walker, mindfully placing her feet down to make the least amount of noise. Ani had told him that she always loved dancing as a kid, which was how she had managed to get so light on her feet. He wondered if Beth had done some dancing too, which would explain why she was so good so fast versus him just being heavy footed for the longest time. He'd taken a couple months to learn how to be that quiet, longer still to be completely silent. He was lost in thought when he heard a click and Beth's cry of pain and distress. Daryl quickly sprang into action as he watched her go down, running to her side as she did her best to shoot the walker that was now looming towards her.

The bolt she fired would have probably killed it if it were alive, but she'd hit too far to the left in the jaw to hit the brain stem. Daryl grabbed the bow from her as he passed and quickly moved to the walker to hit it with the butt of it. The walker went down with how hard he'd swung his bow before he went over to Beth and quickly undid the thing. Her ankle didn't seem to be broken at the very least, which was good because traps like this could. It was a common trap, thankfully meant for wolves and bobcats more than bears or larger game. While it didn't puncture her ankle, it did do quite a number on the joint as far as spraining it went no matter what. As Beth rolled her ankle, Daryl checked it himself as best he could with the boot still on just to make sure it wasn't injured too badly.

"Can you move it?"

"Yeah," she answered.

"Come on," he told her as he helped her up.

He kept his arm around her waist and hers around his neck as he helped her walk along since she couldn't put her full weight on her ankle. Those traps might not be deadly themselves, but he hated people who used them and thought nothing of the animal when they did. It was no better than what Rick had done to Merle way back when; leaving the creature out in the open and exposed with no way to eat or drink or defend itself if a larger predator came around. His snares usually involved a killing blow; a stick sharp enough to puncture the animal used to ensure the least amount of struggle or pain for the critter. That was one thing he and Ani had agreed on whole heartedly when it came to hunting even though they did have differences. Animals were necessary for human survival, but that didn't mean they needed to suffer for it to happen. And some idiot had left that trap there at the end of the world and almost gotten Beth killed. Jackasses, the lot of 'em, he thought to himself as he continued thinking about what kind of 'hunter' used a live trap like that. They'd been walking for about twenty minutes when the trees started thinning and then became too straight to be anything but a maintained plot of land. They ended up exiting the woods at the edge of a cemetery that spread all the way to the large funeral home standing in the distance. It was a sight for sore eyes for both Daryl and Beth as it was the first time since the golf course that they had found a shelter worth while. The two of them began moving towards the house as quickly as they could only for Beth's ankle to give out again and Daryl had to keep her from falling.

"Can we...can we hold up a sec?" she asked as she bent down to rub it.

"You alright?" he asked softly.

"I just need to sit down," she said as she gingerly put weight on her ankle while Daryl moved away.

"Alright, hold up," he said, looking at the funeral home in the distance before putting his crossbow on across his chest. Bending down in front Beth, he held his arms at the side and told her, "Hop on."

"You serious?"

"Yeah, this is a serious piggy back. Jump up."

"Won't Ani be angry?"

"Does everyone think she's got a stick up her ass or somethin'? I'm just helpin' you get to the funeral home," he gruffed a little heatedly.

"No, sorry, just, well, I wouldn't want my man givin' other girls piggy backs," Beth said as she hopped onto his back.

"Yeah, well, Ania ain't like other girls. She knows what's hers is hers. Man, you're heavier than you look," he told her as he began walking, thinking how she was like Ani in that respect; they both had tiny bodies that looked light as feathers but were actually pretty solid.

"Maybe there are people in there," she suggested.

"Yeah, if there are, I'll handle 'em," he told her.

"There are still good people, Daryl," Beth chastised, mimicking Ani's dead-pan voice, a lot of what she did bringing his wife to mind.

"I don't think the good ones survive," he said honestly.

"Ani did. You did. Before all this. You survived, right?"

"Wouldn't call that survivin'," he mumbled as she slid off his back, standing to look at a headstone.

Beloved Father, it read, Daryl at once understanding why the girl had gotten down and stood immobile at the sight of it. He looked behind him, catching sight of some wildflowers growing by a walkway marker. He grabbed them and pulled the flowers completely out of the ground, shaking them and brushing dirt off the roots as he stepped up to the headstone. He put the flowers on top of it and stepped back only to feel Beth grab his hand and squeeze it. Daryl squeezed her hand back in an attempt to show the girl support in some small way before he pulled it a bit and dropped it. It felt weird to be comforted by a teenager, wasn't about to make her feel like he was appreciative for it. He thought once again about burning the cabin and how it had been a freeing moment that she had shared with him. It was a moment that actually allowed him to have hope that they would see the others again, Merle and Ani included. He let her jump on his back again before they headed towards the funeral home and walked up the steps.

Daryl helped her steady herself before he kicked in the door, pounding on the door frame before whistling loudly, telling Beth to give it a minute before they went in. He was used to having to wait to see if anything was going to come at them from inside the house, but nothing did. Beth silently closed the door behind her after Daryl had walked in and double checked that the area was clear. The entire place was clean, not a speck of dust in sight, something that the girl commented on and made him feel uneasy. On a hunting trip with Ani once, they'd found a similarly clean place and ended up having to kill the people who lived there. They had simply refused the fact that they couldn't come back to the prison after having no reason for the murders other than they could. This place being similarly clean had him on high alert and tightening his grip on his bow.

"Yeah," he told her. "Someone's been tendin' to it. Might still be around."

It was completely silent inside the building as they moved down the hall, passing a casket with a corpse inside. It was obvious that it had once been a walker and yet it almost had the normal features it should have had before becoming a walker. He rubbed his fingers down the thing's face only to leave marks that showed a walker's skin beneath. He wiped his hands on his pants in disgust as he looked at the decomposing body on the morgue's table. Beth didn't seem too perturbed by the scene, though, even as they headed down the hall and down the steps into the morgue. It was the only place that might have any medical supplies although there were still corpses in it. Daryl cleared his throat before turning around and putting his bow down as she sat on one of the tables. He really wasn't comfortable with dead human bodies anymore, and the fact that there were two just lying around had him just as much on edge as the place being clean and the one upstairs having makeup on did.

"Let's get that ankle wrapped," he said as he began looking through the cupboards in the morgue for bandages, opening one up with his teeth as he got back to Beth. "Looks like somebody ran out of dolls to dress up."

Beth had been looking at the corpses and quickly snapped at him crossly, "It's beautiful. Whoever did this cared. They wanted these people to get a funeral. They remembered these things were people," she paused as Daryl looked down, thinking about how innocent the teen saw the world, "before all of this. They didn't let it change them in the end. Don't you think that's beautiful?"

He could tell that she was looking for a positive answer from him, but Daryl honestly couldn't give her one she would like. He found the entire thing to be pointless, a waste of time, and, quite frankly, disturbing. Why would anyone bother killing a walker just to bring it somewhere to dress it up? To make it look like the person had died in their sleep rather than walking around killing people by tearing them apart. No one was safe from them, either, not the elderly, not adults, not even children. He couldn't fathom why someone would waste their time doing something like this rather than concentrating on surviving. Who in their right mind would worry more about keeping things like they used to be than making sure they survived?

"Come on," he told her as he knelt down and took her boot off.

Daryl kept his mind focused on the task at hand even though his mind momentarily showed him memories of doing the same with Ani. This wasn't to crawl in bed or relax, though, it was to wrap up a bum ankle. Even then, though, he couldn't help but remember when they had been at the farm and she'd hurt her ankle. He had wrapped it up for her every morning even though she said she could do it herself. Now he was wrapping Beth's ankle up the same way that had Ani's, though he wasn't being quiet as gentle. While he was being careful and gentle enough not to hurt her, he'd added touches for Ani that were meant just for her. Daryl let Beth put her own shoes and socks back on when he was done. They left the basement and the bodies behind and walked further into the funeral home until they found the kitchen. He and Beth shared a look before they started going through the cupboards, most of them completely empty. The girl had just turned around to ask Daryl if he'd found anything when he opened the last two and found them full of organized goods.

"Peanut butter and jelly, diet soda and pig's feet. That's a white trash brunch right there. Ania'd be cussin' up a storm about the pig's feet, though."

"It all looks good to me," Beth said as she pulled a couple cans outs of the cupboard.

"No, hold up," Daryl said, backing off himself. "Ain't a speck of dust on this."

"So?" Beth asked.

"That means somebody just put it here," he said, scrutinizing the food. "This is someone's stash. Maybe they're still alive." He paused for a moment, considering their options, before telling Beth, "Alright, we'll take some of it and we'll leave the rest, alright?"

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"It's like I said, there're still good people," she told him, giving him a meaningful look. "Ani knew it, that's why she tried to bring people back to the prison...gross!" she said in exasperation when Daryl didn't answer and instead used his fingers to sloppily eat some jelly.

"Oi, those pig's feet," Daryl told her while pointing to the item in question. "They're mine."

They ate their fill for the first time in days, after which he told Beth to rest her ankle while he used their empty cans to set up a snare line. Daryl used the time to sit on the porch and have one of the smokes he'd been able to find and recollect on everything that had happened so far. While he'd wallowed in self pity for losing Ani and Merle, she'd watched her father get viciously killed and still had hope. He sighed to himself before he stood up and went back inside the house to say something to her in apology. He didn't find her where he'd left her and instead followed the sound of a piano playing and Beth singing. Daryl walked into the chapel portion of the funeral home and watched her play the instrument. She was still singing like she did at the prison as if nothing had happened and she hadn't lost even more than he had. And yet'd bitched about her singing just because he was jealous of how carefree the girl could be on behalf of Ani. Ani used to sing to him all the time; she absolutely loved to sing and was always humming when it was just the two of them. But rarely did she sing in front of the group, especially after it'd grown with the addition of Woodbury. She'd sung to the old people in Atlanta as a group because there had only been a handful of them. With Woodbury, they'd added thirty people; they'd grown to over seventy before the illness hit. That was too many people for her to feel comfortable singing in front of and she had taken to only singing in the tower.

Whenever it was just them, she'd sing any time he asked, almost any song he requested. When it was the two of them and Merle, Sophia and Carl, she'd sing a couple songs before ending with Metallica's version of Whiskey in the Jar. He still couldn't help the sad smile that formed on his face thinking about the first time she'd sang it. Merle had teased her that women couldn't sing Metallica and she'd thrown it right back in his face, wowing them all with it. She just wasn't like Beth; unless she was drunk or doing karaoke according to her. She hadn't sung on stage since taking choir in school and getting shit on by everyone including the teacher for her voice. It wasn't that she couldn't sing, it was because she was too strange in how she sang. She couldn't read music and had to listen to others singing it, adapting her voice and the way she sang to those around her. It meant that her teachers couldn't control which vocal group she belonged to and her peers thought she was trying to show them up. It had gotten to him while he was drunk because Beth could sing care free all the time while Ani hid her talent away. Still, the girl had a nice voice and he shouldn't have attacked her for it as he cleared his throat to announce his presence, making her jump.

"The place is nailed up tight. The only way in is through the front door," he said as he put his bow down and jumped into the empty casket in the room.

"What are you doing?" Beth asked quietly.

"This is the comfiest bed 'sides Ania I've had in years," he told her.

"You mean besides the ones you shared with Ani," she corrected.

"No, I mean sleepin' on Ania is still more comfy than this."

"You two are so weird."

"Maybe, but it worked."

"It works," she corrected again. "She's alive, Daryl."

"Maybe," he complied before laying back and getting comfortable. "Why don't you go ahead? Play some more. Keep singin'."

"I thought my singin' annoyed you."

"Well, there ain't no jukebox, so you might as well," he said. "'Sides, it's not your singin' that annoys me. Ania loves to sing, she just can't in front of people without a little liquid courage, unless it's old people. She never could say no to the old ones."

"She sang to us a few times," Beth mused.

"Yeah, when it was just the group of us from Atlanta and the farm. When Woodbury came along, how many times she sing to y'all after that?"

Instead of answering, Beth turned around and started playing and singing again as she thought about his question. He was right; Ani had quit singing with them after the group from Woodbury joined them. The last time she'd heard her sing was when she was doing hers and Sophia's hair before Daryl had come back. She smiled at remembering how Ani had been so red in the face in anger when he had ridden through the gates with that woman on his bike. It was the first time they had all been able to tell what she was thinking, most of C block having quiet conversations about it when the two of them were away. When it came to Daryl, Merle, Sophia, Carl, or Judith, anyone with eyes could tell the what the woman felt. To be fair, Ani had changed at the prison, talking, laughing, and smiling more; sometimes they could tell it was forced, though. If it were any of those five, and most of the time Beth herself, they were genuine. Merle and Sophia put a warm and happy look in her eyes but Daryl? Every time they would spy Ani watching Daryl, she had this soft smile and gaze that showed just how amazed she was by and loved the man. Daryl looked at Ani with the same one she gave him and Beth hoped someday she would have someone look at her like that.

Daryl simply lay there listening to her play song after song until it got dark and she fell asleep after making a bed out of cushions. Beth felt like she was with her big brother Shawn for the first time in a long time, the man she'd gotten stuck with opening up to her more and more. Daryl helped her feel safe and confident, just like Shawn had done, and it made it easy for her to fall asleep. For the most part, Daryl couldn't sleep, catnapping his way through the night and vividly dreaming of Ani or Merle every time his eyes closed, only to startle awake to visions of her torn apart or tearing one of them tearing the other apart, Ani tearing him apart. He would look over at Beth to make sure she was safe each time before heading outside to smoke from one of the many packs he'd pulled from the golf club. He was plagued by thoughts that he hadn't even bothered to think about in his darker state of mind. Beth didn't even realize how much their drunken escapade had affected Daryl, making him realize that he really hadn't looked for Merle or Ani. He'd written everyone off for dead the minute they got separated and now all that was left was guilt. Daryl couldn't help but pray that his family really was out there and safe and that he would find them like Beth was so sure they would.

Daryl smacked Beth's arm lightly when it got late enough in the morning to wake her up and told her they should eat and rest a few more days. There was plenty of food in the kitchen to last them a few days plus some and still leave a good amount for whoever left it there to begin with. It would help Beth heal her ankle since she was so slow on when she tried walking around. Beth tried to make her way to the kitchen, going as fast as she could, although it wasn't fast enough for Daryl. The man was grumbling constantly about needing to take a piss and wanting some food behind her until he finally just picked the teen up. Even Ani moved faster with a bullet to the leg, not that he'd let her move too much on her own after that anyway.

"Forget that," he said, realizing it was fun to tease a little-sister type person; that must be why Merle was always up Ani's ass. He carried the girl all the way to the table and plopped her down on a chair, "Alright, there you go. Whew, let's eat."

As soon as he sat down, though, having pulled a bunch of stuff of the shelf again, the cans outside rang out their warning causing both to look towards the door. He told her to stay put and he grabbed his bow, quickly heading down the corridor. He carefully checked to see if there was anything in the house as he made his way to the door, slowly opening it and peaking outside. He hoped it was only one or two walkers at tops, but there was nothing he could see through the crack. Daryl opened the door a little further only to see that there was nothing there except a mangy, one-eyed white dog. It was pretty obvious the thing hadn't had much contact since the world ended with how skittish it was, but it would be helpful having a dog around. They could even train it up to help with hunting and stuff if it was friendly enough. He knelt down as he called back to Beth in an attempt to show the thing that he wasn't as threatening as he seemed.

"It's just a damn dog," he yelled. "Hi," he said quietly, slowly reaching out to touch it. "C'mere boy."

The dog yelped and ran away, making Daryl slowly stand up and close the door only for Beth to startle him by talking, "He wouldn't come in?"

"I told you to stay back," he chastised her as he turned around.

"Yeah, but Daryl, you said there was a dog," she told him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

He couldn't help but offer her a comforting hand on the shoulder and say, "Maybe he'll come back around. Come on."

Daryl picked her up and took her back to the kitchen to sit down and eat the meal the dog interrupted. He wandered the funeral home looking for anything else to use while Beth sat at the table and sorted through the things Daryl brought in. The dog came back twice more, but it ran the minute Daryl tried to touch it and Beth barely managed to before it took off. He had been starting to get upset by the damn thing and was ready to give up on it while the girl just wanted to pet an animal. When she'd told him that, he called her ridiculous and went to grab some candles from around the room so they could light up the kitchen at the very least. It would allow them to have some light in the room, too, as Daryl pulled out more food for dinner. Beth started writing something on paper with a pen she'd found herself while Daryl watched her.

"I'm gonna write them a thank you note," she said simply.

"Why?" he asked as he ate from his tin.

"For when they come back," she said. "They come back," she amended after a pause, "even if they're not coming back, I still want to say thanks."

"Maybe you don't have to leave that," Daryl told her after a moment of deliberation. "Maybe we should stick around here for a while. They come back, we'll just make it work. They may be nuts, but maybe they'll be alright."

"So you do think there are still good people around," Beth teased. Daryl just shrugged one shoulder before Beth chuckled and asked, "What changed your mind?"

Daryl thought about it for a moment before looking at Beth; it was her, her and Ani. Somehow, these two tiny women had survived the end of the world and still saw the best in others. They still put up with an asshole like him when he was behaving like an asshole and taking it out on others. Anyone else would sit there and either ignore him or stay silent while they both were willing to put him in his place. Looking back to his food before looking at him, he couldn't help but compare how Beth wasn't letting him get away with his bullshit with how Ana did the same thing with Merle. She was always building him up, too, or calling him out, when he was doing things she didn't agree with or thought was beneath him. Honestly, he could only really see a difference in between how the two acted as siblings towards the brothers was the fact that Ani would physically reprimand Merle whereas Beth barely managed to cuss him out.

"You know," he said, not really wanting to tell her that he'd been comparing her to Ani, even if it was just how sisterly they acted.

"What?" she laughed.

"I dunno," he mumbled, embarrassed by how she was acting because he knew she knew he was thinking about Ani at the very least.

"Don't...'mmminnooo'," she mumbled with an eye roll and a smile. "What changed your mind? You'd tell Ani, right? You can tell me, I won't laugh."

He gave Beth a hard look before looking away, taking a bite of food before mumbling, "You and Ania. You always see the good in everythin'. Kinda hard not to think there might be good left when you're constantly rammin' it down my throat like Ania does Merle."

"Are you sayin' I got a new big brother?" Beth laughed.

"Said you wouldn't laugh," Daryl practically pouted, going back to his food.

"I was just thinkin' yesterday how you reminded me of my big brother," Beth told him. "He was always-"

"I'm gonna give that damn mutt one more chance," he said as Beth silenced herself and he stood and grabbed a jar of pig's feet, stomping off towards the door after hearing the cans clang again.

He swung the door open with the expectation of finding a mangy mutt that refused companionship; he was greeted by walkers instead. There had to at least be ten of them coming at the door now as he slammed it shut and called for Beth. She came running into the room holding his crossbow as he struggled against the door. It felt as if every single walker that had been out there was pressing against the damn thing when he gave Beth a signal to toss him his bow. He told her to run while he turned around and took aim, leaving the door to open and the walkers to barge through. Daryl backed down the corner after dropping the first walker before high-tailing it down the corridor and yelling for Beth once again. Just as they had said they could stay, of course they would get run off by walkers like this. The prison had been the longest he'd stayed in one spot to live in his entire life; why would a place he'd been at for all of a day and a half last?

"Beth! Pry open a window! Get your shit!" he yelled at Beth as he ran through the halls.

"I'm not gonna leave you!" she hollered back.

"Go out! Go up the road! I'll meet you there!" he said, keeping the dead chasing him instead of going after her.

Two more arrows found their purchase in walkers as he ran down the hall, reaching the stairs and running down into the morgue. There were no exits, the tables in there provided him a little bit of cover from being bit as he dropped his bow. As the walkers poured into the room, he maneuvered himself and the table into a corner. It gave him enough leeway to be barely out of their grasp and yet still be able to attack the things with the scalpels he picked up when he grabbed the table. Daryl had to crawl under the table and push dead bodies out of the way once there were too many for him to get at the rest, although it was a blessing in disguise. He was able to get away from the walkers long enough to use the other table to wedge against the counter. Doing that allowed him to trap a large number of the walkers in the morgue and gave him an opportunity to run. He dealt with the few stragglers easily as he ran back up the stairs, retrieving his bolts along the way. He managed to fight his way out of the house and up to the road, expecting to find Beth standing there waiting for him. All he found was her bag on the ground when he got there, his mind going to the thought that the walkers had gotten her. It was only the sound of squealing tires that alerted him to the vehicle a little ways away. All he could make out was that the car had a white cross on it as it took off and he tried to call for Beth.

Even though he lost sight of the car early on, he chased the damn thing all night, only pausing momentarily to catch his breath before starting at full pace again. He was exhausted, his body was sore, and he could hardly hold his head up by the time the sun rose in the morning. He was soaked in sweat and trying like hell to find out where he was supposed to go until he fell. What little hope Beth had put in him died out at the sight of the crossroads and he'd crumpled after trying to catch up to the car. There was no way to tell which way the car had gone, no way of knowing where they were heading. He couldn't help but feel like a failure in every sense of the word as he put his head down. He'd given up as soon as shit had hit the fan, gave up hope for his girl, hope for his brother, hope for his family. And Beth had done her damnedest to put it back in him and he'd just started thinking that maybe she was right and now she was gone to. Should never care 'bout nothin'. Always gets taken away, he thought to himself as he sat there. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, all he knew was one minute he was alone and the next he was surrounded by men.

"Well, lookit here."

One of the men reached down and picked up Daryl's bow, making the man quickly stand and punch the man, grabbing his bow away. He'd lost every last thing he'd ever had aside from his bow and his vest and he wasn't about to lose either of those. These men looked rough and tumble like most of the guys he and his brother had hung around with. They wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he made the wrong move right now, but Daryl couldn't bring it in him to care. Everything he'd cared about besides those two items was dead and gone and he wasn't going to get it back. If his life was over, he was going to go out his way, fighting for his life, and not by some douchebags who came out of no where. He was completely aware of the weapons that were on him even as he held the man he'd punched in his sights.

"Dammit, hold on!" the man on the ground said.

"I'm claimin' the vest," one of the men behind him said. "I like them wings. Like that girl's. Can't wait to catch up with her."

"Hold up," the man on the ground repeated as Daryl momentarily thought of the wings on Merle and Ani's back and the man started chuckling. "A bow man. I respect that. See, a man with a rifle, he could have been some kind of photographer or soccer coach back in the day. A bowman's a bowman, through and through. What you got there? Hundred and fifty pound draw weight? I'll be donkey-licked if that don't fire at least three hundred feet per second." Daryl continued to stare at him, not phased by the man's words at all as he stood in front of him. "I've been lookin' for a weapon like that. Of course, I'd want one with a bit more ammo and minus the oblongata stains."

The man behind him began chuckling, "Get yourself in some trouble, partner?"

"You pull that trigger," the man in front of Daryl told him, reclaiming the conversation from the nitwit behind him, "these boys are gonna drop you several times over. That what you want? Come on, fella, suicide's stupid. Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?"

That sentence sent Daryl on a whirlwind, because it was the exact opposite of what Ani had told him when he'd asked her why she had really started cutting herself. Explaining that all there was was rage and anger, she'd said it was easier to hurt herself to feel something than to hurt other people. Even though in this era she would hurt or kill anyone she needed to to protect herself and what was hers, she would never enjoy hurting others. She would rather hurt herself than others. The smile the man gave him was pretty much the same soft one that she'd given him, too, though he knew there were different meanings behind them. Ani had smiled in understanding and reassurance while this man was smiling in familiarity and manipulation. It was the same kind of smile Merle used when he was trying to play nice with someone he was going to turn on as soon as they said the wrong thing. The men around him looked positively ready to pounce without a second's thought and it was only the man in front of him that was holding them at bay.

"Name's Joe," the man in front of him said, Daryl lowering his bow a moment later.

"Daryl."