A Simple Coincidence // Daryl Dixon

26 | Louder Silence

Silence, the absence of any kind of sound. It's great to experience it once in a while, but at times, silence could get louder than thunder.

I enjoyed silence as a kid. When it was silent, it meant that things were calm. I admired the silence at home, because it meant that mom wasn't fighting with her husband, it meant that he wasn't hitting her, or that he won't come to my room and hit me.

But silence is unpredictable, sometimes, when someone is calm and silent, they could suddenly grow loud, and break down walls stronger than mountains.

That scared me more.

The older I got the more I hated silence. In silence, I couldn't prepare myself or be aware of the storm that was to thrive through me. He always took advantage of my silence and comfortability, his outbursts were unpredictable, harsh and violent. I hated it.

But once the apocalypse hit, I got to finally enjoy the silence, I even preferred it.

But not that day.

"Daryl"

We stood still, in silence, neither of us daring to speak. I hated him, I despised him, and I didn't want anything to do with him. After all, he was the reason for bringing back all those memories, he was the one that took away my silence, encouraging the loud voices in my head to remind me of all the things I had just started to forget.

In the giant world, with almost the entire population whipped out, he somehow, fell in the river that I was at, at that exact time, on that exact day. I had spent three days close to that river, never once had I gone to it, but the day I did. A man named Daryl falls out of the sky and right in Infront of me.

What a freaking coincidence.

The rustles of the bushes snapped us both out of our trace. I quickly turn around with my sword in hand expecting to see a walker. Yet I saw none. A splash of water from behind me made me turn around. Daryl had fallen into the water, his crimson colour blood fading into the river.

"Shit"

I rushed over to him, crossing through the river, splashing water all over myself, to see him passed out in the water with one of his bolts sticking out of his side.

What the hell am I supposed to do?

I quickly get my arms underneath his shoulders and try to pull him out of the water before he drowns.

"You are one heavy man" I whisper as I finally get him on solid ground. I reach for my pack to get anything that might help him, only to find nothing.

"Ugh"

I walk through the water once again splashing water around, to reach for my pack that I had left on the other side. As I walk back still cursing at the stupid man, I heard him talking.

His eyes slowly opened, staring at me in confusion.

"Merle?" he asked in a low grunt.

"Great this is exactly what I needed right now" I mumble as I look through my pack to find the bandages.

"Merle. I'm having a shitty day bro"

Is he hallucinating? Do I look like a man?

"Uh, I'm merle... ya know?... we all been havin' a shitty day... bro?" I tried to imitate the southern accent, cringing at my own voice, but I don't think it worked.

Who cares? he's half dead.

He just kept talking while my brain didn't seem to be working, I had no idea what I was supposed to do in a situation like such. All the practice I had done seemed to fly right out of my head. I had always practiced on dead people, not under much pressure, but at that moment, the person I had to help was very much alive, it was someone I knew, someone I could hurt.