desire - daryl dixon x oc

1 - an old friend

The forest was quiet, apart from the often growls and snarls of the deadly creatures surrounding me every so often. I walked around, silently stabbing the walkers approaching me with my trusty knife that never left my side. The scorching sun shone down on the miserable world. The small herd was heading towards me, I slowed down every step, nearly passing out from heat exhaustion. Unluckily one of the walkers clawed onto my shirt, pulling me backwards and preparing to dig their teeth into me. I grabbed my knife and shoved it right into its skull, pulling it out and preparing for the others coming close.

But it was too much, I had no bullets, and my gun rested in my waistband so all I had was a hunters knife. I pushed the clawing creatures away from me and started to run, it wasn't fast but it was better than walking. Sweat ran down my face as my breathing was slow and uneven. I didn't stop, I continued running and screaming out which brought more walkers to me.

Multiple gunshots rang in my ears as I followed the noise. In the mere distance I saw five figures, I continued to run for them as I soon realised three of them drop to the floor. I was about 5feet away from them and I heard the man unnecessary yell out to the young girl. "Dammit I told you not to waste the fucking bullets! You've got a knife for a reason,"

My eyes met with the young girl as she apologised to the dark haired man. I recognised her face, but it was much older and she was a lot taller. She had wavy long blonde hair that was tied back into a ponytail, she had dirt over her clothes and I stood still for a second, remembering back to my old life and to why she was so familiar. And the name finally clicked, it was Beth.

She stood before me, wondering the same question as to who I was, she gave me another look and finally spoke, "Annabelle?" A smile rose to her face as she stumbled over to me and pulling me for a hug, she was still shorter but her head just rested under my chin.

My eyes locked with the man staring at us, he stood silently and waited for me and Beth to stop hugging. I pulled out of her embrace and the man immediately spoke. "Who the fucks this?" He swung his arm, indicating to me.

Beth giggled and introduced me to the man standing in misery. "This is Annabelle, and that is Daryl." She turned to Daryl and gave him a warm smile, "She was my babysitter when I was a kid" I looked the man and my eyes fixated on him, he wasn't the type i'd typically be attracted to, but once my eyes landed on him I knew there was an odd feeling warming in my chest.

He looked me up and down and grit his teeth, "Come on we need to go, herd probably coming our way" He nodded and turned away from us, me and beth following behind him. Daryl walked in silence, clutching onto his crossbow and assuming eavesdropping on our conversation.

"What ya doin out here Bethy?" I asked her after I chugged the water she gave me to cool down.
The smile disappeared from her face and so did mine, "Lookin for our group, we lived at this prison and then it got overrun, we all got split up. I'm looking for Maggie," She spoke and then her tone dropped. "Daddy's gone, he was killed by a horrible man"

I wrapped my arm around her lower back pulling her in for a side hug as we walked. "I'm so sorry Beth," I looked over to her face and her eyes were red as a tear slipped down her cheek.

We were brought back from our sad conversation as Daryl finally spoke, he stopped in his tracks and pointed to the floor, clearing some leaves and clearly showing the footprint. "There, must have got out in a hurry. Things went bad" He grunted.

"Wouldn't kill ya to have a little faith" Scoffed Beth as she stopped crossing her arms and glancing at the miserable man.

"Faith ain't done shit for us, sure as hell didn't do nothin for ya father." He spat in frustration.

Beth avoided eye contact with Daryl and turned away, picking some berries from the bush and wrapping them up in a handkerchief. "They'll be hungry when we find them," A fake smile spread across her lips.

Daryl sighed, holding his crossbow tight until his knuckles went white and walked away from us, deeper in the woods. We hesitantly followed behind him and he stopped, wiping some fresh blood off some leaves and staring down at the two creatures laying on the floor before him.

"The trail keeps on going!" Chuckled Beth attempting to keep an optimistic mood. A twig snapped and we all pulled out our weapons as fast as we could searching around for the noise. A walker crept up behind me and beth, letting out a snarl as he grabbed onto her. She panicked and gasped, trying to get the monster off of her. I grabbed it by the back of the shirt and clutched onto my knife, stabbing it in the skull multiple times before it collapsed to the ground.

"You good?" Spoke Daryl as he glanced over to Beth. She replied with a small nod as she checked her arms for scratches. He looked over to me and I did the same, but I took a deeper look at his features, Daryl had ocean blue eyes and jet-black messy hair. "What?" he squinted his eyes at me.

"Oh nothing," I said while looking away, ignoring that I was probably staring at the man for a while and not even attempting to say a word.

"Alright' come on let's carry on," He replied, instead of walking in front of us and attempting to ignore us the whole time, Daryl walked to the left side of me and Beth walked on my right side.

"Who've you been with all this time?" Asked Beth curiously as she looked over to me with a soft smile.

"I've been alone, just me, all by myself" I let out a long exhale and my own smile faded, I hadn't come across any other people since the whole apocalypse started.

Daryl looked up to the sky and then to us, "We should go, find someplace to camp out for the night" The sunset was close and the sky started to darken. I nodded to him and we picked up the pace, searching for someplace to spend the night.