❤ Finding Love In a Hopeless Place ( A Daryl Dixon Love Story )

Chapter Four

My knees dug into the soft soil as I bent over Dallas, inspecting his injuries. Obviously the man intended to frighten us off because he had only inflicted a bloody nose and a few bruises here and there. My fingers brushed the stubble on his cheek where a small bruise had formed and he instinctively reached up to grab my wrist.

"Hey, it's just me," I said quietly, pulling my arm out of his grip.

Dallas sighed. "I know, but it hurts," he said, matching my tone.

"Can you sit up?"

With a grunt, he slowly lifted himself up into a seated position and leaned his back against a tree trunk. For a moment we just sat there in the predawn light, staring at each other.

Finally Dallas broke the silence with a sentence that I was anticipating:

"I am going after my damn guns."

I rose to my feet and brushed off the leaves and broken twigs that stuck to my knees.

"And how do you expect to do that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, "Are you just going to march into their camp and demand that he return your guns? Yeah, that'll go down great."

Dallas slowly stood, bracing the tree for support. "I will figure it out when I get there," he said, turning to face me.

"I need you to stay here," he told me while removing the safety from his pistol.

I shook my head and grabbed his arm. "You're not going without me," I insisted.

Dallas glared at me for a second.

"Fine, but stay out of my way."  He swiveled in the direction that led toward the camp. I followed, my hand hovering over the gun tucked into my belt. Could I really shoot someone if the situation demanded? It wasn't a question I'd expected to ever ask myself, and the answer seemed out of reach.

We walked for a few minutes before the chirping of birds was overtaken by voices. For a brief moment I was terrified at the idea of there being more men like the one we'd encountered. But as we approached the camp that fear was quickly diminished by the laughter of children ringing through the trees. If I strained my ears enough I could just make out a conversation between two women.

"There he is!" Dallas hissed. He dashed through the remaining brush, but before he could make it very far, he was halted by something hanging up by the branches. I squinted to see wires and cans, now tangled around his limbs and creating loud clanging noises that alerted the camp.

"Walker!" Someone shouted. There was a commotion as everyone bustled and moved around, and Dallas shot me an alarmed look.

"Well? Are you going to help me or just stand there?" He asked. The din emitting from the cans only grew louder as he strained harder against the wires wrapped around him.

I stepped forward, but a man suddenly called out, "Halt right there."

I did exactly that, my hands froze in mid air, and looked up to see the owner of the voice: a tall, muscular man with dark curly hair. Behind him were two other men, an older guy with a Hawaiian shirt and a stocky black man.

"Can you please tell me what it is you're doing by running into my camp like this?" Asked the tall guy, whose gaze danced from me to Dallas and back. The older guy shot him a look at the word 'my', but didn't say anything.

"One of your-"

I cut Dallas off by saying, "We broke down a few miles back.. We're just trying to get to Atlanta, but we don't know where we are and-"

"And one of your men jumped us in the woods and stole my guns!" Dallas exclaimed. He was still attempting to get out of his minor predicament. Finally the black man stepped forward to help him, and once he was free Dallas shot up with a fiery look in his eyes. "Where is he?! The damn bastard is going to get it!"

As the tall guy lurched forward to grab Dallas, the old man looked mildly concerned.

"Did you say Atlanta?" He asked, and when I nodded his expression softened, "Atlanta is over run by walkers... the whole damn place. You can't expect to get in there and come back out alive, much less expect to find anyone."

Everyone watched Dallas grow pale, as if all the air had been stolen from him. After a moment he swallowed, then looked at me. I was at a loss for words. It felt like we were thrown into the middle of the ocean with no life preservers and with no idea what to do next.

The tall man's expression softened. "Uh, if you guys need a place to stay until you can get your bearings, then you're uh, free to stay with this group," he said to me, and then his gaze shifted to Dallas. "But if you do anything, anything to endanger these people..." He trailed off, allowing that to sink in and for us to finish the sentence for him.

Relief flooded over me like a wave. I was so exhausted, and to find some footing in this shaky situation was more than I could ask for. "Thank you so much!"

Suddenly Dallas was moving. "There he is! I'm going to kick his ass!" He yelled and nearly knocked over the old man in his pursuit to catch Merle.

The curly haired guy scoffed. "What did I just say?"

This caused an eye roll from the other two men. "Merle has it coming to him," said the old man, "don't worry about the guy."

The short man smiled at me. "Anyway, I'm T-Dog."

"Dale."

"And I'm Shane."

As I shook hands with the men, I felt someone's gaze burning into my back and turned. It was the guy from before, Merle's brother.

A shiver raced through me as our eyes met. But then he looked away and disappeared into the brush.