RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

wake up

SHE SAT DOWN beside Daryl on the porch step, glancing at the cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth.

"You got another one of those?" She asked him, gesturing to the stick of nicotine.

He nodded as he fumbled around in his jacket pocket for the pack. He flipped it open, only a few left. She plucked one from the pack and stuck it between her lips, about to pull out her own lighter, but he already had his to the end of her cigarette. It sizzled for a few seconds before she felt the familiar burn in the back of her throat, soon trailing down into her lungs. She shut her eyes and held the smoke in for a moment before exhaling, the burning sensation settling down.

Her eyes fluttered open again, straight ahead, glued on his motorcycle he had been working on in front of their home. 

She took another drag and exhaled before asking him. "Those people you met, the ones in the burnt forest, they took it from you?"

"Yeah." He said simply behind a puff of smoke.

"You saved them, right?" She continued to ask. He was silent and stared ahead at his bike too.

"I should've killed them." He finally said, taking one last puff from his cigarette before tossing it aside on the cement. 

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, hot ashes falling onto her fingers from the cigarette that continued to burn. 

"You all right?" He asked her, just barely moving so he could see her better.

She nodded, but he wouldn't take that as her answer.

He leaned away slightly, her head falling off his shoulder and into his hand that lifted it. "You've been off ever since we got back." 

"I thought I lost you." She said, biting her lip before she could spew out more. "I have never been so scared in my life."

"That why you haven't left my side these past few days?" He asked, his fingers playing with strands of her hair. 

She nodded again.

His arm slid around her back and to her other shoulder, pulling her into his side again. "It's gonna take a lot more than a few dead bastards to kill me."

She forced out a light laugh, appreciating his humor, but a few days ago he was dead in her mind.

It was quiet for a few moments, just her and Daryl until someone stood next to them. They would've never seen her if she didn't clear her throat in an awkward way.

"Hey- I mean, hi." Denise said quietly, fiddling with a paper in her hands. 

Willow turned her head, looking up at Denise. "Good morning."

Daryl didn't say anything. He only nodded at her.

She cleared her throat again, and they could've sworn they saw sweat beading at her forehead.

"What's that?" Willow asked, looking at the paper in her hands.

"It's a map." Denise responded coolly with a few nods. 

Willow smiled, waiting for her to say more, but she didn't. "What do you have a map for?"

Denise unfolded the map a bit, turning it over to reveal a circle marked in red ink. "I've had my eye on this place for a while. After I got out of DC, I just drove. I remember seeing it right when I realized I had no idea where I was going. Edison's Apothecary and Boutique. It's just this little gift shop in a strip mall, but if it's really an apothecary, they had drugs."

"How do you know they still got 'em?" Daryl asked her.

Denise shrugged as she looked between Daryl and Willow. "It isn't that far. I just wanna check. And you both aren't out scavenging or pulling shifts."