The Price Of War [Daryl Dixon Pre-Apocalypse]

Tip Of The Spear I

Okay, second disclaimer- This takes place in 2015, which means, when I finally get to TWD universe, it won't be 2010, probably 2021 or something. It literally changes nothing, but I just wanted to clarify that.

Having found Bravo was a blessing. After my parent's awful divorce and a lifetime of daddy issues, my brother had become a SEAL. He was welcomed into the Bravo family with open arms and warm smiles. Something neither of us knew back then.

It was almost logical for me to become a member of said family as well. It had been only the both of us for the longest time, since I was 10.

Nate was much older than me, eight years almost, and he had always acted as my protector, caregiver, parent. After our mother died in a tragic car accident and our father went to become more of a dead beat father than he already was, he took me under his wing. Our father was never home to look after us anyways, so it wasn't a surprise when Nate decided to take me with him when he finally turned 18 and moved out.

We struggled financially for a while, but refused to take any money from our father. Nate had always been too prideful. When things got real bad, we turned to uncle Harrington, our father's best friend from back when he was still an operator and not a cake-eater. He had always been nice to us, in fact, he was my godfather, so he had always been of much help to us.

I was fifteen when Nate became a SEAL. He had served his time in the Navy before he decided to go for tier one operator. I was left behind every time he was deployed. Alone in that small apartment. Naima would come over every weekend to spend time with me, as well as Alana, but Jason's wife wasn't exactly the company I enjoyed most. Still, she checked on me every so often.

Four years later, and I had decided to enlist. I wanted to follow my big brother's steps. People expected great things from me, but they knew better than to believe a woman could pass that kind of harsh training. I was barely 5'4, tiny for a SEAL, but I had trained like any other soldier since the age of 10, and like a SEAL when I turned 13. I knew I was prepared to prove the world wrong.

And I did.

Green Team was hell, but I knew it was meant to make us realize how hard war really was, and make training look like a nice walk on a Sunday afternoon.

By the time I had made the teams, everything changed. I knew I was most likely not going to join Bravo, having two related teammates in the same team would only make things harder for everyone. So I resigned to the fact that I was going to join Alpha, if Full Metal wanted it so. However, destiny had something else planned for us.

I could still remember walking back to the base after a long afternoon of heavy training. Nate was supposed to be back in no time, so I was focused on the runway. I had seen the plane land, but I had to wait a little more before I got to see the team again.

I was expecting to meet the guys inside the base, getting their stuff from the cages and leaving some other, but I never made it that far.

The team, our instructor and I were only a couple feet from the base when I saw Jason walk out of it. Bravo followed closely behind. I smiled at them and sped up my pace. My gaze moved around, looking for my brother, excited to see him after two days of absolute silence, but my smile soon fell when I didn't see him.

"Where's Nate?" I asked, when I was finally close enough.

Nobody replied, they barely even dared to look at me in the eyes as their glances fell to the ground.

I chuckled, incredulous. "Bet he's still in the cages, isn't he? He's always taken longer than me to get ready." I joked. Their sad looks remained as Jason took a couple steps in my direction, regret written all over his face.