Daryl Dixon's Weakness

Chapter 4 - The Hunter

Once I had frantically scrambled through the bushes, my heart slightly relaxed as I saw Carl and Sofia unharmed. As I looked past their trembling bodies, I saw a revolting walker making a meal of a dead deer.

I crept over to the creature silently, pushing the terrified children behind me to provide them some protection. Once I was close enough I raised my knife and plummeted into it's decayed skull. I crouched over it checking that it was truly dead this time. I stood up and began walking back to the kids when a voice from behind stopped me in my tracks.

"Ya got 5 seconds to step away from them kids before I shoot an arrow threw ya brain."

The deep voice was rough and threatening. Dread shot through my body as the hairs on my skin stood up.

I slowly turned around and stepped to the side, slightly away from the children. The man had a crossbow aimed at my forehead and looked ready to kill at any moment. He had messy brown hair with a hint of facial hair. His piercing blue eyes sent daggers towards me and his strong chiseled arms didn't falter his aim for a second. It was safe to say I was truly terrified.

"Listen, I'm no threat to you, I just saved these kids for christ's sake!" I whimpered, fearing for my life. You could never predict what people are capable of doing now.

"Well who the hell are ya anyways?" He growled.

I heard shuffling in the bushes behind me and just hoped it was someone to set the man straight.

"Daryl!! What the hell are you doing?" My prayers had been answered once more as I saw Rick, Shane and Jim running to my side. Shane stepped forward towards the man.

"So this is Daryl..." I mumbled under my breath, realisation flooding over me.

"I'm protecting these damn kids!!" He shouted over to Shane.

"She's no threat! Her name's Saskia, she's new to the group. Lower your crossbow. Now!!" Shane fired back at him. Daryl looked me up and down suspiciously as he slowly lowered the crossbow.
"Well how was I supposed to know anyway!!" Daryl grumbled. He walked over to the deer when anger took over his defined features. "What the hell?! That poxy bastard just ruined my damn deer!!" He stomped over to the lifeless walker and kicked it. "Hope y'all like squirrel coz that's the only damn thing we have now!" He shouted whilst storming away towards the camp. Shane turned to me with an apologetic look in his eyes. "Say hello to Daryl Dixon.." He sighed, clearly winding down from the previous tension.

"I'd rather not." I said under my breath and looked down to my feet trying to calm down and getting my breathing in order. That's another thing about me. I suffer with panic attacks. Another side effect from having a father like mine. So if I hadn't struggled with it before well here's an apocalypse to make it a shit tonne worse!

I managed to get my breathing under control whilst the others and myself returned to the camp.

I saw Daryl stomping into the centre of the camp grasping a bunch of dead squirrels. "MERLE!" He shouted, "GET OUT HERE! I GOT US SOME SQUIRREL! MERLE!" Everyone looked at each other awkwardly, knowing exactly where Merle was. I gulped. Hard.

Rick stepped forward cautiously towards Daryl. "Daryl, we need to talk to you." He spoke softly.

Daryl turned sharply towards the voice he heard and looked him up and down. "Who are you? Officer friendly?"

Rick looked at him sternly "My name is Rick Grimes. I joined your group not too long ago."

Daryl didn't seem impressed by his answer. "Rick Grimes? You got something you wanna tell me?"

"It's about your brother." Rick hesitated, "He didn't make it back, I'm sorry."

Daryl looked towards the ground. "He dead?"

"We're not really sure.." Rick stated.

Daryl angrily looked up at Rick "What do you mean ya don't know? He either dead or he ain't!" His temper was significantly rising. I took a step back from the pair, sensing that the situation was going to escalate quickly. T-Dawg, on the other hand, stepped forward, looking to interject.

"I handcuffed him to a roof." T-Dawg explained, "He was out of control, shouting abuse at us...so we cuffed him."

"AND YOU JUST LEFT HIM THERE?!" Daryl screamed furiously. I flinched at his harsh tone.

"I meant to unlock the cuffs, I swear!"
T-Dawg quickly defended himself "But I dropped the key.."

"So why didn't you pick it up?!" Daryl's patience was rapidly running out.

"It fell down a drain.." T-Dawg mumbled, his voice full of shame.

"Yeah. It fell down a drain." Daryl repeated sarcastically, finding the story unbelievable.

All of a sudden Daryl launched himself at T-Dawg deciding he had enough. I gasped in shock as Rick quickly intervened wrestling with Daryl on the ground. Shane forcefully grabbed Daryl from behind and held him in a rough headlock until he stopped struggling.

"Hey, headlocks are illegal!!" Daryl exclaimed in protest.

"Yeah well the law don't mean shit anymore." Shane stated. His grip on Daryl tightened causing him visible pain.

"Shane that's enough!" I said boldly, amazing myself at how confident I sounded. Both men looked up at me, not expecting that to come from my voice. Daryl looked straight at me, I could have sworn I saw a glint of thanks in his eyes. Shane loosened his grip and eventually let go of him. They composed themselves and stood slightly apart from each other, Shane keeping a wary eye on him.

Rick walked up to Daryl, looking him dead in the eyes "We are going to get your brother back."