Wings

A Friend(II)

"Trust yourself, you will start to trust others." — Santosh Kalwar
____________________________

REMY

Remy didn't know when the group planned to leave the barn. They could use the rest, she knew. She figured she had enough time to do some hunting or gathering. Daryl apparently had the same thought. He was cocking his bow and pulling on his bag.

She didn't know if Daryl would even be up for the company. Carl was just outside the barn door, holding Judith on his lap. She was watching as he let an ant crawl over his hand. It had her complete attention.

"Going hunting," she told him. "Wanna come?"

"Nah," he replied. "Gonna stay here. Spend some time with Judy."

"Alrighty, fair enough! Keep Dax company for me? Don't want him scaring off or stealing all the game."

Carl just nodded, his eyes focused on his sister, a smile on his lips.

Looking over, Remy saw that Daryl still hadn't left. He was waiting for her, she realized. She took that as a good sign. She hadn't quite made it to him, when he turned and walked into the trees without a word.

—-

DARYL

The hunt, so far, had turned up nothing. Daryl led the way to lower land. The animals would likely be there. With the rain, the creeks wouldn't be dried anymore.

As they made their way down the hill, Daryl heard what sounded like a person walking. Not the shuffling of a walker. Purposeful steps.

The girl had heard it too. They waited for a time, expecting a walker, or an ambush, but nothing happened.

"Pro'ly one a' the others lookin' around," he told her.

"Or 'Squatch!," she whispered excitedly.

He didn't want to ask but couldn't stop himself. "You believe in Bigfoot?" Great.

"Dead people wandering around, and you don't?" Remy quipped back at him.

Those had been his own words at the farm to Beth's first boyfriend, Jimmy.

When he didn't respond, she added "...'course, I guess if it was Sasquatch, we would smell him first. He's not called skunk ape for nothin!"

"Was out huntin' once," he told her finally. "Saw a chupacabra."

Her eyes lit up then. He could see the million questions that she was about to drop on him and he regretted ever opening his mouth.

"What did it look like? I mean, I know a lot of them are like coyotes with mange but..."

"Wasn't no mangy coyote," he cut in.

"So then what did it look like?" Daryl could see that she wasn't mocking him. She was definitely interested.

"Le's go on back," he told her, "'case it ain't one of ours."

"Right. But you're gonna tell me one of these days."

—-