In The End: A Daryl Dixon x OC Story

Past Tense

Daryl and I had returned as the sun went down, beginning to hide any tracks or game in darkness. Surprisingly, I hadn't scared off all the game like he had said I would, and we came back with a small haul. One of the snares I had helped set up caught a rabbit, and Daryl shot two squirrels so that a day in the woods wasn't for nothing. It was dark and the fire pit had embers glowing in it. I had hoped that no one would notice that I'd gone with Daryl, especially not Merle. I would never hear the end of how the two of us spent the whole day out there and came back with three small prizes to show for it. Daryl never came back with anything less than five for just a few hours of hunting. Obviously, they'd say a lot more than hunting was happening out there.

However, my hopes would end up crushed once again as Carol, Shane, and Andrea had spotted us as soon as we broke the tree line. Carol had been ladling something out of a pot into some bowls that Dale had had in his RV for everyone, handing a bowl to Andrea while Shane stood beside them, chatting away.

I had somehow forgotten how trapped one could feel here. You couldn't go anywhere or do anything without someone finding out. It was like being a teenager living with your parents all over again. Only, the punishment for sneaking out could be death by flesh eating monsters, or it could also be, everyone around you thinking you slept with the dirty backwoods redneck. I tried to find the bright side in the latter, but besides people thinking I wasn't as much of an antisocial as they thought, there really wasn't one.

Daryl took my rabbit from me and slowed his pace as if to avoid talking to the three of them, while I felt as though I had no choice but to approach. There hadn't been any time for breakfast, and besides a few dirty mushrooms I had found, neither of us had had anything to eat all day. I didn't understand how he could do it, but I was starving, and high hunger, low rations didn't sound like it would pan out well on my end.

"Hey," I mumbled as I got closer, not sure what to say as I walked up expecting them to just put a full bowl in my hands and let me disappear as they often did.

"So, how did it go with Daryl today?" Shane asked as Carol handed me my serving of dinner and Andrea laughed to herself.

"It was fine," I said, "Learned how to set up snares and did some practice with the crossbow."

"She can't shoot for shit, but she caught a rabbit," Daryl said, holding up the little bunny as he walked past.

"Well, you are still learnin'," Shane chuckled, "I'm just surprised you made it back. Thought Daryl might ditch you in the woods or something."

"Very funny, Shane," I rolled my eyes at him.

"Alright, alright," He said, "Did you enjoy your time away from us?"

"Would it make me a bad person to say yes?" I asked, trying to force myself to be a part of this casual conversation.

When I first got here, I didn't speak to anyone. I did my chores and retreated to my tent. Being around all these people who just seemed so happy to be here with their families and friends felt like literal torture. My whole world fell apart when I lost Kathleen, she was my everything. She was always on my mind, along with the what ifs from that day, but I knew that it wasn't doing me any good to stay hidden away all the time. A part of me knew that talking with everyone would slowly but surely get me out of this hole I was buried in, and I was trying my best.

After about a month here in the quarry, I had opened up to Dale about what happened. He had been there, but he hadn't seen what I had. All he knew was that we were separated at the safe zone, he hadn't known that I had seen her or that I had willingly left her behind. We had sat on top of the RV until the sun came up while I told him stories about her. It had made me feel better somewhat, being able to remember all the good things that came before Atlanta. Going off that, it was only common sense that if I could bring myself to talk and make friends that maybe one day in the future, it might not hurt as much as it does now.