That Valley Girl || Daryl Dixon

[ 004 ] Dead Weight

I waited for Rick to come out of his tent. I wanted to ask if he'd let me go with him. I wanna help, try to do something useful. If I'm gonna live in a world like this, I should learn a thing or two.

"-could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?" Shane chased after Rick as he left his tent.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl warned.

"No I did, douchebag's what I meant."

Shane mumbled something to Rick.

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst-- me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, Let alone a human being." He finished, walking away from Shane.

"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asked.

"And me." I interjected, walking up to Rick. He turned around to face me, looking me over.

"Reagan," He sighed. "Now, I don't want you to take this the wrong way but-- maybe you should stay back."

"And do what? Wash clothes? I wanna do something better Rick, I wanna help." I insisted.

"What's that dumb valley girl gonna be able to do?" Daryl complained, stealing Rick's attention for a second. Jeez, I didn't think it was so obvious that I was from the valley.

I scoffed. "You can teach me some things along the way." I said, getting his attention back. "I'm a fast learner, I can learn to take care of myself." I pushed.

"Okay." Rick finally agreed. "We're gonna have to take one more person though." He said, turning to Glenn.

"Oh, come on." He complained.

"You know the way. You've been there before, in and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask, I know that-- but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick gestured towards his wife.

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men and a woman, huh?" Shane protested against the idea.

"Four men and a woman." T-dog interjected.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl scoffed, cleaning his arrows.

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-dog asked.

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's five." Dale said.

"It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risk." Shane argued. "Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

"It seems to me what you really need most here, are more guns." Rick suggested.

"Right, the guns." Glenn spoke up.

"Wait, what guns?" Shane questioned.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up." Rick explained.

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted."

"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori looked up at her husband.