A Glimmer of Hope

An Unexpected Visitor

We had been on the road for two months since Daryl and I's first night in the tent. We hadn't done it again, we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves so early, and also wanted to take it slowly. We decided that the night in my tent was wonderful, and we both felt great afterward, but it shouldn't have happened; really it hadn't gotten so far. Another reason we had avoided doing it again. It took a lot of self restraint to take things slow with him; I just found everything about him attractive. It was an incredibly frustrating and such a wonderful feeling all at once.

I was the one that told Daryl that it shouldn't have happened and at first he was a little taken back, misunderstanding that I meant just as far as we went. Not spending the night LITERALLY sleeping together in the same bed. That was absolutely blissful. No where felt as great as laying in his arms since the whole world fell to shit, maybe even before.

After I explained myself properly he understood and agreed.

I rode on his bike with him, the whole journey of our search for a new home. No one questioned it or said anything to either one of us about it. We would sometimes sneak off to one another's tents before bed just to steal a few kisses here and there and tell one another good night. Nothing more than kissing. I was really enjoying to get to know him more, little by little. I told him things about myself that not too many people knew. Things that no one here would know. I enjoyed our private relationship.

We decided that we wanted to call it that but we wanted to wait until we found a permanent home and we'd break the news to everyone that first night. I don't really know why we both wanted to wait; there was just something that was so stressful in the air lately. No one was talking very much. We were tired, hungry, and Rick seemed to be running out of ideas; everything had been taken by the dead. It just didn't feel like the time to break any good news.

We had found a place to make camp for the night, Rick and Daryl decided to go hunt together while there was still some light out, or as Daryl so eloquently put it, they went to hunt while the rest of us were going to "wash our panties." He was too much for me sometimes. Daryl could see that Rick was really starting to feel the weight of the stressful burden he carried as our leader when Daryl decided to ask him to go hunting with him, something to take his mind off of things. The rest of us set up the campsite and lit the fire.

After everything was set up for the night, I went to sit against a tree close to where they had parked the cars, a little ways from the campsite. I sat up against it, not closing my eyes for fear of what may come up on me. I looked up at the sky and over to the group. What could I have done to deserve the kindness that these people showed me? It had been close to about three months at this point, but I was really starting to feel like a part of the family. 

I heard some branches rustling behind me. I reached down for my knife. It was on my side, as always. I left some of my weapons I had acquired on the road in the side saddle of Daryl's bike he let me use. I turned quickly, expecting to see a walker stumbling toward me, but it was instead a dirty man in overalls and a black t-shirt underneath with a savage look in his eye. I didn't see a knife or gun on him. I could take him. He looked my body up and down and smiled eerily. 

Shit. I'm going for it, but I'm calling for backup.

"DARYL!" I bellowed as loudly as I could. As weird as this sounds, I had confident that our 'connection' he and I talked about sometimes would make sure he heard me. Not that it had some special power, but it gave me the confidence I needed to know that he and Rick would hear that and come to help me if I needed them by the time they arrived. They should be on their way back to camp, almost here, if not by the campfire already. It wasn't that I wasn't confident in the rest of the group, but I would rather Glenn protect the rest of them and Rick and Daryl give me a hand. It just seemed like the better plan.