S u r v i v o r s [ Daryl Dixon ]

Chapter 28

I got off the bike and looked at Daryl with a smile. As every morning, we drove around the surrounding roads looking for lost people to offer them community and safety. I took a deep breath.

"Can you smell it? Geeez I'm hungry."

We walked towards the benches where others were sitting and eating their meals. They started to greet us and I felt a bit overwhelmed. I walked over to the grill where Carol was standing.

"Smells good" Daryl said.

"Just so you know, I liked you first" Carol said and I laughed.

"Did you notice that too?" I looked suggestively at Carol. "I feel like a shadow when I go with Daryl."

"And all those interested women..."

Daryl looked at us with narrowed eyes. "Stop. You know, Rick brought in a lot of them, too."

"Give the stranger sanctuary, keeping people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love."

"Lizz finds them too."

"But women don't seem to see me as a threat" I laughed. "And in you they do, I guess, because no guy took a step towards me."

Daryl nodded. "That's just fine."

"Yes, why?"

Daryl shuddered and I glanced at Carol, who was amused and said "Good job" with just a flick of her lips until she remembered something.

"Right. I need you to see something. Patrick, do you want to take over?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Suddenly, the boy looked at me and Daryl.

"Mr. Dixon, Ms. Rhee, I just wanted to thank you for bringing that deer back yesterday. It was a real treat. And I'd be honored to shake your hand."

I was close to laughing, but out of respect for Patrick, I didn't. I watched as Daryl wiped his dirty hand on his pants and Patrick squeezed it, then he thanked me the same way and walked away.

"And yet someone spotted you, Lizz" Carol laughed.

"How old is he? 16? I could be his mom. Young mom but stil a mom."

Carol started leading us towards the fence.

"About today, I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run" Carol said.

"That place is good to go. We're gonna move on it" Daryl said.

"The thing is, we had a pretty big buildup overnight. Dozens more towards tower three. It's getting as bad as last month."

"They don't spread out anymore." I said.

"With more of us sitting here, we're drawing more of them out" Daryl noticed. "You get enough of those damn fence-clingers, they start to herd up."

"Pushing against the fences again" I said.

"It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long" Carol added and looked at Daryl. "Sorry, Pookie."

I chuckled and Daryl poked Carol in the shoulder. The sight made me laugh again.

~*~

We were packing the cars when out of the corner of my eye I saw Beth say goodbye to her boyfriend, Zack. Daryl saw it too.

"It's like a damn romance novel" he said under his breath.

"Let them" I laughed. "Let them have something of that youth. Although from what I can see, Beth doesn't seem to take it seriously."