Walkers

Chapter 44- Wishing

Daryl's POV
I woke early. I could hear the birds chirping and the sun was just barely coming up over the horizon.

Today was definitely a hunting day. We were running sort of low on food, not too much, but enough where a couple squirrel and hopefully a deer wouldn't be too bad to harvest.

I walked down the stairs from where my mattress was placed on the perch. Apparently I wasn't the only one up early.

Carol was up, feeding lil' asskicker. Carol was definitely the woman I dreamed of. I would never tell anyone, except for Jake. He was the sort of man you felt like you could tell anything to and not be judged. That's why I like having him around, I didn't have to bottle everything up.

"Hey, Carol." I called.

"Yeah." She perked up, whispering.

"I'm goin' huntin'." I told her.

"Alright." She smiled. "Be safe."

I exited the prison gates and entered the surrounding woods. I walked towards the east for about fifteen minutes and found a fresh rub and scrape left behind from a buck.

The ground underneath was somewhat moist, leaving tracks from the buck. I followed them for about ten more minutes when I came to a clearing. In the middle of the field stood a gigantic buck feeding on the grass below.

I raised my crossbow and aimed at the deer's body. I put my crosshairs behind the shoulder of the deer.

I held my breath and exhaled slowly, steadying my aim. I placed my finger in the trigger guard and slowly squeezed the trigger.

The buck buckled up and took off for about twenty yards, leaving a big blood trail of frothy blood, meaning I shot the lung.

I didn't have to really follow the trail since it didn't go too far. When I finally came across it, it was just laying in a wooded area.

I took another arrow from my quiver and poked the deer in it's eye to make sure it was dead, sure enough, it was.

I started going to work on the deer, gutting it so I could bring it back to the prison. This would definitely help us with food.

Carol's POV
As soon as Daryl went hunting, I excused Maggie and Glenn from guard duty and handed little Judy off to Beth.

Whenever Daryl went hunting, I always had to go on guard duty. I was afraid something would happen to him, I couldn't live with myself if something did.

It always worried me, too, when he went hunting. I knew he could handle himself better than anyone else I knew, but walkers could attack, he could get injured, or... The Governor could attack.

Luckily, nothing happened. I seen Daryl emerge from the woods dragging a bulky buck to the prison. This would definitely help us with rations. We could all be fed about another week with this.

I hurried down the stairs of the guard tower and opened the gates for Daryl to enter.

"Think we got a ladder?" He asked me.

"Uh, probably in the garage." I told him.

"Right, thanks." He said and walked towards the prison.

It was like he just brushed me off. It always kind of felt like that with him. Everybody said he looked at me with passion but I never seen it. Hell, I even flirted with him occasionally but all he ever says is "Stop."

Maybe I was looking too into this, maybe I wasn't. I did like Tyreese before he left. He made me feel special, but Daryl made me feel butterflies. Something I never had with that evil, evil man, Ed.

I made my decision. I was going to go for Tyreese.

I ran up to the prison and entered C-Block.

Shit, I thought, I hadn't thought of a plan to woo Tyreese!

I guess I could just invite him into my cell and take it from there. So that's what I did.

"Tyreese?" I called.

"Yeah?" He answered with a huge grin.

"Can I talk to you? In my cell?" I asked.

"Sure." He nodded.

I walked into the cell and plopped onto my bunk. I patted the other side of the bed, inviting him to join me. He plopped down too.

"Listen, Tyreese," I started "I like you. A lot." I place my hand on his knee.

He looked at me in shock with his big brown eyes. "I like you too, but I thought you and Daryl were..."

"No, he's never made a move." I told him.

"But you made one on me. Couldn't you have done the same thing to him?" He asked.

"You're much easier to talk to."

He nodded and stared at me. We both leaned in and our lips barely touched when we heard someone .

"Oh!" I heard a man yell. I looked up. It was Daryl.

He looked like he was in pain, like he was crying.

I ran up towards him and Tyreese stopped me, dragging me back to him. "Let him be." He told me.

I jerked my hand away and ran to catch up to Daryl.

Daryl's POV
Instant pain and tears. That's what it was like when I seen Carol and Tyreese kiss.

I hated crying in front of people. It makes you seem weak. These people looked up to me like I was the "tough redneck." But that's it really. I was just a redneck to them...

"Daryl! Wait!" Carol yelled.

"Why?!" I yelled back. "Just go back and fuck Tyreese!"

I know the words cut deep into her. They did to me too.

"Daryl..." She cried. "I'm tired of being alone... it makes me... scared."

"Fuck you!" I cried.

"Why are you acting like this, Daryl? It's not like you've ever shown me that you liked me!" She yelled.

"Don't you get it?!" I yelled.

"Get what?!" She yelled back, even louder.

"That I fuckin' love ya!" I managed to yell out.

I gulped as soon as I said it. Her face was red from crying.

"You... really love me?" She asked.

"You don't see the way I look at ya? How I always want to be around ya?"

"No." She shook her head. "Everybody told me the way you looked at me, but I never seen it."

"Well I do." I said.

She walked up to me slowly. "You... really do?" She asked again.

I nodded and made my way towards her too, slowly.

We were now face to face, breathing heavily and looking into each others eyes. She wrapped her arms around my neck and I wrapped mine around her waist, squeezing into a tight embrace.

We looked at each other a moment longer before closing the space in between our lips.

As soon as our lips crashed together, I got butterflies in my stomach.

Our lips moved in sync and we kissed for a while before we broke apart. A smile on both of our tear, sweat, and snot drenched faces.

"I love you too, Daryl." She grinned from ear to ear, as did I.