You walked through the prison yard, fallen leaves crunching beneath your feet. You were doing your best not to alter your stride from normal. Of course, the more you thought about it, the harder it became to know what normal meant.
Better to stop thinking about it entirely. You took a breath, trying to distract yourself as you continued along.
Today, you were teaching the kids about tracking.
Well, really Daryl was teaching the kids about tracking, but it was your idea. Ever since Carol had told you about what happened to Sophia, the thought had been stuck in the back of your mind. If someone went missing, or one of the kids got separated, they should know how to find each other.
You hadn’t expected Daryl to say yes. You figured it was worth asking, the question coming as an afterthought when you thanked him for the crayons. You figured he’d say no and then you’d just research enough basics to pass along to the kids.
But he’d surprised you.
“I can show ‘em,” He hesitated for a moment, chewing on the side of his thumb, “If ya want.”
“Really? I know you probably have other stuff you need to do so it’s really okay if you don’t want to.”
“Nah,” Daryl shook his head, “They need t’know how t’survive, right?”
“Right.” You smiled.
You’d both agreed that going out into the woods beyond the prison wasn’t an option. Instead, you scoped out an area of the yard further from the cell blocks that went relatively untouched by the rest of the community. Perfect for a hands-on tracking simulation.
Daryl said he didn’t want to know the route ahead of time, didn’t want to know more than the kids so he couldn’t necessarily give them the answers if they got stuck.
“Ain’t no answer keys out in the real world.” He’d grumbled, making you laugh.
He’d instructed you to do various things along the way– walking, running, fighting or struggling against something, and limping.
Obviously, you knew the order didn’t really matter. They just had to learn how to identify the signs, but you couldn’t help coming up with a story. That was just how your brain worked.
You walked from the cell block door down the hill until you were about two thirds of the way to the fence. Then you broke into a run, stopping yourself by hitting the chainlink. You shuffled around down there for a bit, skidding and using the fence as leverage to disturb the ground in the same way you would if you’d been pinned by a walker.
Satisfied with your staged scuffle and mindful that you only had a twenty minute head start, you moved on. You headed back up the hill, limping this time, veering right towards the nearest guard tower.
You finished your walk, swinging the tower door open and climbing to the top. The choice to make the final destination the guard tower had been purposeful– it was the perfect place to observe your class.
To your surprise, however, you weren’t the only one there.
“Oh, hey Mags.” You greeted. “I didn’t know we had a watch rotation in this tower.”
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Fanfiction"This place you have," You said. "It's secure?" "Yeah." He scoffed, as if the question offended him. "Th'prison about three miles west." The prison. You were much farther south than you'd thought. "I can take ya there, but you've gotta answer some q...
