Zedler, M.D. // Daryl Dixon

Chapter Seventy-One: The Polaroids

tw// sexual assault

•seventy-one•

Beatrix

"So we have about a day of water left, maybe less," Rick says, him and Lucas walking ahead of the rest of us. "Wait, what are you three doing?"

"Having a contest," Carl smiles up at him as I try to balance behind him and Michonne on the rail of the train track.

"Well we have a long way to go, so if you all could wrap this up," he trails off as he sees the genuine smile on Carl's face.

"Can't rush greatness, Rick. I'm going to beat both of them," Michonne gives him a smile as well as she sticks her arms out and almost immediately falls off the track. I try to hold back my laughter, but I fail miserably and stumble off the rail as well.

"You were saying?" Carl looks between Michonne and I, and he lets out a real, genuine laugh. The first I've heard out of him since Lori died.

"Okay, fine. I concede," I throw my hands up playfully.

For the slightest moment I'm able to forget everything that happened and just life in the moment. No apocalypse, no walkers, no missing husband, just the happiness of the moment. It's definitely a rare occurrence.

//////////

The next day, naturally, was very uneventful. We stumbled on some walkers and spent the night in the forest again, but overall, nothing really happened. When we finally set out this morning, we were pretty close to Terminus. Rick thinks we only have about another day left, so tomorrow we should be able to arrive.

"Sun's going to go down soon," Lucas says, looking up at the sky. Hues of purple and orange shine through the tree leaves onto us. It's a very pretty sunset today. "We should find somewhere to stay."

"Yeah," Rick agrees, stopping in the middle of the train tracks. "Let's head off towards the road, see if we can find a car."

With that, we take off towards the road with Rick in the lead. Carl and I walk in the middle of the group, as we usually do. We try to lift each other's spirits, making jokes and whatever else we can do. It's hard, though, to get our minds off of Judith, Daryl, Baxly, and the rest of our family. Carl had also disclosed to me that he and Enid had kind of started dating, to which I most definitely squealed out of excitement. That quickly died down, though, when I realized that we have no idea if she's alive or not.

"Oh, thank God," I sigh at the sight of a blue station wagon a few meters down the road from where we stand. "First good thing to happen to us in days."

"Beatrix, you just jinxed us," Lucas shakes his head at me, and I roll my eyes in response.

Michonne kills a walker that's laying melted to the pavement beside of the car while the rest of us check for anything to eat. I rummage through the glove box, and it's truly like I can hear angels singing when I spot a six pack of peanut butter crackers.

"Hell yes!" I exclaim, tearing into the packet and gobbling down one cracker. My first bite of food in days. "Lucas, you're next."

Lucas rushes over to where I'm at so that he can take his cracker next. After Lucas, Carl gets his, and then Michonne and Rick.

"We can split the last one," I suggest, although I have no idea how that would work.

"You and Lucas split it. It's been longer for you," Rick says, walking back to the front of the car. "Besides, we caught a rabbit in the snares today."

Usually, I would tell them no and that someone else could have it, but this time I simply couldn't. I broke the cracker in half and ate my half while Lucas ate his. It wasn't a lot, but it really felt like I had just had Thanksgiving dinner. Carl was even laughing at me, and to be honest I probably would have laughed at myself too.