Mi Amor ~ Daryl Dixon

Chapter Thirteen

"Dale could get under your skin, he sure got under mine. He wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I would make a decision, I'd look at Dale and he would be looking back at me with that look he had. We have all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were, he knew things about us, the truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity." Rick took a breath. "He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety, our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on we're gonna do it his way, that is how we honor Dale."

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"It's gonna be tight fourteen people in one house." Rick says, the group surrounding a truck.

Hershel waved him off. "Don't worry about that with the swamp hardening the creek drying up.."

"With fifty head of cattle on the property we might as well be ringing the damn dinner bell." Maggie says.

"Shes right. We should've moved you in a while ago."

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each one of the doors, facing out towards the road." Rick nods to Adrianna.

"We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sight lines both sides of the property." She says, as people start to move around.

"T-dog, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going." Rick adds.

"What about standing guard?"

"I need you and Daryl on double duty."

"Gotcha."

Hershel comes around with a few boxes. "I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be."

"What about patrols?" Andrea asks.

"Let's get this area locked down first, after that Adrianna will assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose." Rick says.

"We're back to that now?" Shane scoffs.

"It was the right plan first time around. Poor execution."

"That's a slight understatement."

"You don't agree but this is what's happening. Swallow it, move on." Rick says, firmly.

Adrianna nudges Daryl's shoulder and they make there way to their far out tent.

"How are you doing?" Adrianna asks, their feet crunching in the grass.

"Fine."

"Are you sure? It's okay not to be. You shouldn't have had to do that." She says, carefully.

"Nobody should have." He says, lower than normal.

"You're right. You stepped up though, you were there and you helped." Adrianna stopped him as they reached their tent. "I'm proud of you."

He grunt in response and begins grabbing their things. Adrianna also grabbed a few bags and began walking back across the field.

"Adrianna!" Rick yells out from behind her.

She slows her pace and allows Hershel and him to catch up.

"When I'm with Daryl, help Hershel watch over things around here. You know Shane's got a way of letting things get out of hand, especially when he's all torqued up." Rick says to her.