Room for Pain (Shane Walsh love story)

Chapter Nine: More Alike

Chapter nine: More Alike

It was around mid-afternoon when I spotted Daryl walking away from the farm with his crossbow slung over one shoulder. I caught up with him as he strutted across the grass field. The sound of my feet hitting the ground grabbed his attention and he spun around, pointing his crossbow instinctively. I raised my hands in the air and gave him a one sided smile, laughing softly.
“Woah, easy there.”
He scoffed when he saw me and turned back around, heading in the direction of the woods.
“Hey, aren’t you gonna tell me where you’re going?” I asked, having to catch up to him yet again.
“Nope.” He said, pursing his lips as he stepped over a log, “aren’t you planning to leave?”
“Nope.” I replied cheekily as I kept up at a steady pace beside him, “I actually wanted to join you.”
He stopped walking and turned to face me, “why?”
“I need to get away for a bit.” I admitted, “Get a breath of fresh forest air.”
He nodded, “you think you can keep up?”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes as we began to walk again.

We trekked for a good half hour through the forest, the trip pretty much uneventful. It was nice to be away from the farm for a bit though. I know that we had only been there a couple of days, but nevertheless, I felt like I needed to be out there.
“You never actually told me why we’re here.” I said matter-of-factly.
“You said you needed a breath of fresh air.”
“What were you coming out for? Same thing… or a different reason?”
He paused in his walk again and took a deep breath, “I want to find that little girl.”
I nodded and bit my lip, knowing deep in my heart that our search efforts would not be successful.
“When do you think we’ll be back?”
“Before sundown.” Replied Daryl, “as long as we keep moving.”

Finally, the two of us arrived at a clearing. I pulled a tree branch out of the way of my face and a small double story grey cement building came into view. Daryl and I exchanged glances before he removed his crossbow from his shoulder and held it up in defence. I felt around in my pockets for my gun before realising that I had handed it in to Shane for safe keeping back at the farm. I still had my pocket knife in one and extracted it, holding it at the ready.

As we walked up to the doors of the building I rested my hands on the door handles, twisting them to check if it was unlocked. Sure enough, it was. I bust open the door and Daryl jumped in front, aiming his crossbow directly ahead as if expecting a dead-one to ambush him in that very moment. It was all clear. He entered the house first and I followed directly behind him, my knife still at the ready in my right and dominant hand. He turned into the first doorway and stood in it for a while whilst he checked the room for dead-ones.
“Should we split up or go together?” I whispered from behind him.
“Stay by me.” He replied quietly, “all you’ve got is that little pocket knife of yours. It ain’t gonna do you much good if there’s more than two geeks.”
I nodded and stuck with Daryl as we inspected the room together. Nothing.

I quickly broke away from Daryl and stood in the doorway of the opposing room, holding my pocket knife up high in case anything sprung out at me. Daryl stood behind me and watched me. Nothing. The floorboards creaked as we walked, creating an eerie feel about the place. This time Daryl took the lead yet again, checking behind the third consecutive door. Nothing. Suddenly, the sound of something knocking and banging echoed around the house from the room opposite the one we had just checked. I shot Daryl a nervous glance as we crept past the stairs to the source of the noise in a single file. The room we were about to enter was the kitchen. As Daryl peeked around the doorframe, I passed a bin. Looking into the bin, I found empty cans of sardines which by the looks of them had recently been opened. I tugged on Daryl’s sleeveless gingham shirt and handed him the tin. He lowered his crossbow and took the time to get a whiff of the tin where only the oil the fish used to swim in remained.
“Definitely fresh.” He confirmed, “you’ve got a good eye.”
Suddenly, more creaking came from up ahead. The sound led us to an old and rickety looking pantry by the looks of it. The door of the pantry was slightly ajar, making the scene look suspicious. My heart leaped as Daryl neared the entrance of the pantry. I held my knife up in defence as he threw open the door, revealing nothing but a few jars of food and some blankets on the ground.

Our search ended precisely as I had assumed it would: fruitless. I grabbed a few of the jars and held them in my hands, shoving my pocket knife back into my pocket so I could carry more food. I didn’t however take everything I saw. Someone was staying at the house, whether they’d be back or not was unknown, but if they were coming back and all of their food was gone, it would be a pitiful sight. I also didn’t want to be greedy.
“You’re a good person, Zelda.” Said Daryl appreciatively. I gave him a weak smile before following him out the house
“Shame about our luck.” I frowned.
“Yeah,” agreed Daryl, “sucks.”

As we walked out a bit further, I heard Daryl yell: “Sophia?!”
I looked around frantically before joining in, “Sophia?! It’s Zelda and Daryl! Sophia?!”
As I rounded one corner of the house in case she was there, I quickly looked over my shoulder to see Daryl picking what appeared to be a Cherokee rose. I smiled to myself as I watched Daryl, thinking about how gruff his exterior was, but how kind a heart he had. I turned away to make sure I hadn’t missed Sophia whilst looking at Daryl, and sure enough, I hadn’t. I ventured back to Daryl and we set off back to camp, Daryl with the Cherokee rose in hand.
“Who for?” I asked him.
He hesitated before replying, “Carol.”
I bit my lip, resisting the temptation to smile and looked straight ahead.

When we arrived back to camp, I thanked Daryl for letting me tag along before going off on my own to go and find something else to do. I wanted to be useful here. I spotted Shane kneeling by one of the water pumps, splashing water on the top of his head. I set down the jars of preserved food that I held on the ground and crept up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist and interlocking my fingers at his chest.
“Where’d you go, beautiful?” he asked sweetly, caressing my fingers which were laced together firmly in front of him.
“I went out to help Daryl search for Sophia.” I replied.
“Any luck?”
“Kinda.” I said, letting go of Shane’s torso and grabbing a hold of his hand, tugging him along behind me to where I had put down the food. “No signs of Sophia, but I did find some food so I guess it wasn’t entirely a waste of a trip.”
He smiled at my efforts and helped me pick up the food, both of us sharing the load as we walked up to Hershel’s house.
“Did you hear about Hershel?” he asked me.
“No, what happened?”
“He’s saying that there’s no way we’re staying here.” Muttered Shane, “said when Carl gets better and we find Sophia, we have to move on.”
“Well then, we’ll be staying here a while.”
“How do you mean?” he asked, the husk in his voice emphasized.
I gave him a wide eyed look, stopping my tracks, “You don’t seriously think that we’re going to find her, do you?”
He shook his head, looking down at the ground as we began to walk again, “no. I just… I thought I was the only one with that frame of mind.”
“We’re more alike than you think.”