❛ now daryl, daryl was gray. he always seemed to be bitter and emotionless with no other dimensions to himself; his mere presence was the only one. gray was intriguing, almost acting like an acquired taste, but it had the potential to be beautiful t...
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thirty eight.
"Let's go, sunshine." Daryl woke me early in the morning, handing me my sword as he stood over me. "Got a big day ahead of us." I groaned, struggling to sit up. Rocco's head popped up from under the makeshift blanket Daryl had made us. I rubbed my eyes and climbed to my feet, sliding my sword over my shoulders so it rested on my back. Rocco looked up at me, worried as I began to walk away from him.
"You coming, bud," I asked him. He sprang to his feet and trotted up next to me as I turned around to jog down the road to catch up with Daryl. When I caught up, a biter staggered towards us from down the street. Rocco stopped in the middle of the road and began to bark. I bent down to comfort him. I shushed him, petting his head. "You're alright! It ain't gonna hurt you." Daryl shot the biter in the head a few feet in front of the two of us. It fell flat on its face, crushing the skull. "See? You're okay," I cooed, standing back up.
"All you care 'bout is that damn dog," Daryl grumbled while he pulled his arrow from the biter's brain.
"Jealous much," I challenged.
"Nah," he spat, wiping the bloody arrowhead on his leg. I scoffed at his response while we walked side by side.
"If we ever had kids, this is what it'd be like," I sing-songed. I never thought about having kids, let alone with Daryl. What I said just kind of slipped out, but I was okay with it. Daryl was surprised by my remark but I could tell he wasn't feeling negative about it.
"That's different."
"You know, I can see right through you," I eyed him flirtatiously, continuing to poke at him. "I know you'd like me to run my fingers through your hair all day."
"You best be leavin' me alone, girl." His cheeks began to flush.
"Or what? Is that a threat, Dixon?"
"Maybe." A small smile tugged at his lips.
"Fine. I'll just leave you be then if that's how you want it. Me and the dog will do our own shit," I shrugged my shoulders, picking up the pace and walking right past Daryl. Rocco was hot on my heels, not hesitating to follow after me. I gazed behind my shoulder, smiling teasingly back at Daryl who was staring at me in awe with a smirk on his face. Rocco began to bark again. Daryl's smirk sank away from his face. I turned back around to see what was wrong. A herd of biters were stationed a little ways down the road, stealthily making their way over to us. Rocco stopped barking, backing up a few steps before whimpering. Before I could say anything, he bolted off into the woods.
"Hey," I yelled, taking off after him as fast as I could manage. I dodged through trees and hopped over logs, Daryl right behind me. He kept shouting my name, trying to get my attention so I would stop. I ignored him as I shouted for Rocco. We ended up skidding to a halt when we reached a pair of railroad tracks. I breathed heavily, looking around at my surroundings for places he could've gone. I opened my mouth to holler for him again but Daryl threw his hand over it to prevent me from doing so.
"You want those walkers to find us," he hissed in my ear. He let me go. "There's no use in tryin' to find 'im. He's faster than we'll ever be," he attempted to coax me. I still looked around for clues as to where Rocco could've ran off to, a now sad look on my face. Daryl's fingers brushed against my hand lovingly. "Let's just follow the tracks now; we ain't goin' back to the road. If we find 'im along the way, we find 'im, okay? He'll be alright." I nodded in agreement, grabbing a hold of his hand. We traveled down the tracks hand in hand, me kicking at some of the rocks littered on the boards. It was a good, quiet while before we heard low groans coming from the trees. A few biters walked out of the trees, spotting us. I pulled away from Daryl, unsheathing my sword and observing my rivals.
"I got this," I whispered, slowly stepping over to the staggering geeks. I sliced off their heads one by one and wiped the blood on my pants. I turned around to go back to Daryl, sighing. He raised his crossbow. I turned my head to see a biter standing behind me, its hands almost touching my shoulder. I dodged out of the way, an arrow then flying through the air and plunging through its forehead. I stared at the fallen biter in awe. That thing could've killed me and I wouldn't have even known it was there if it wasn't for Daryl.
"You good?" Daryl checked with me as I shuffled back to the tracks, adjusting my clothes.
"Yeah," I answered while we headed back down the tracks.
It must've been late afternoon when I spotted a sign. I walked over to it for a closer look.
"What's it say," Daryl asked, squinting to see it better.
"Terminus..."
"The hell is that?"
"Must be a place to stay," I smiled with hope. "We have to go!"
"I dunno 'bout that," Daryl mumbled.
"There could be other people there who can help us. Maybe there's houses there." I started to get quiet, my mind wandering. Daryl looked at me funny because of my silence. I glanced up at him. "Sorry. I-I was thinking about, you know... this Terminus place could be better than that. We don't really know if we don't find out," I weakly smiled. Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "C'mon, it won't hurt us. We could just scout it out if you want to, if you think that's safer." I grabbed his hand and began to drag him along. Daryl grunted unhappily over a shouting that emerged from behind us. It called our names, catching our attention. We turned towards it to discover three people rushing over to us. As the trio got closer, I could identify them as our own. I beamed, my heart beating faster with excitement. All of us exchanged hugs, feeling lucky to even reconnect with each other in this way after what happened back at the prison. Daryl stood close behind me as I stood in front of Carl, grinning at him. He did the same back but blushed in my presence.
"You're alive," Rick said, relieved to see us.
"Had a few close calls back there," Daryl told him, his fingers brushing my hand.
"Same with us," Rick adjusted his belt. "You guys headed the same way we are?"
"Depends. Where to," I asked.
"Terminus," Michonne stated, hope and happiness in her voice.
"We can go together," Carl suggested eagerly, staring at me. Rick agreed with Carl's statement before cocking his head to the side.
"We've been on the lookout for the rest of 'em. Since there's all these signs, I hope they're heading to the same place. It'd be better to go in numbers; this place might not be what it seems but we're gonna try it out."
