The End of a New Beginning // Daryl Dixon

Part 9

Meredith

I LIED ON the windshield of a car, staring up at the stars. It's cool out tonight. And it felt too nice to spend it inside the RV with a bunch of other people, making it hot inside with our body temperatures.

I tried to think of reasons how Sofia could've gone off track. Rick mentioned she was doing great making her way back to us when she suddenly veered off in the other direction and her entire trail just vanished. There wasn't any signs of walkers near her tracks. But something had to have caused her to run off. Maybe she stopped and figured she had to go the way she went. But how? I'm sure she could've known going that way would mean she'd be going deeper into the woods. I would've if I was a child. Of course, my dad did teach me how to make it back to the city if I ever got lost in the woods. But, still. Every kid is different. Can't expect them to be on the same level of smartness and strategy or whatever to make their way back to safe haven.

Look, I like kids. And I do have a soft spot for them. I am pretty worked up over Sofia. She's not even my kid, but I just want her here. I want her to be okay and back in Carol's arms.

"Hey." I turn my head and find Daryl standing next to the windshield of the car.

"Hey." I softly answer.

"You good?" He asks me. I simply nodded my head.

"Yeah." I answer. "Just...worried is all." I say.

"Yeah." He nods. "We all are." He leans on the side of the car. "We're gonna find her, though. She's gonna be cooped up under a bush, up in a tree or something and she's gonna be just fine. She'll be alright." He adds.

"Yeah." I lightly smiled. I pull myself from the windshield and look at him. "Were you ever lost in the woods as a kid?" I ask him. Daryl looks down, as if it was a shock for me to ask him a personal question. It kinda is. I mean, I was always annoyed to have Daryl around. I mean, he did cause me to break my wrist with his drunken state and all. But he's really not that bad of a person. He's cool. He's good.

"Uh, once." He finally answers. "Six days. Survived off of berries." He explains. I furrow my brows.

"Rough." I frown at him.

"Found my way back home, though." He nodded. "Nobody seemed to realize I was missing. I expect to get home, see a police car, people, everyone lookin' for me. Instead, I walked right through the front door, made my way to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich."

"Geez." I frown. "What a caring family." I frown at him.

"Like you're one to talk." He says.

"What?" I ask him.

"Exactly." He says. I tilt my head to the side.

"I'm not following." I shook my head.

"I know nothing about you." He says. "Yet, somehow, you seem to know more about me than I know about you. I know nothing about you."

"Okay, technically, I know one thing about you." I correct him.

"Please." He rolls his eyes. "You know two things about me." He states.

"What?" I test him.

"I just told you I got lost in the woods when I was six. And I didn't exactly have the perfect family growin' up." He says.

"Okay. Well, you never bothered to ask." I say. "And that's not true. I've told you I was the only child. My mom died when I was young. My dad taught me with my bow and I was a doctor before all this." I point out. "So...if we're being technical about this, you know more about me." I say. Daryl huffs out a small laugh.