Something More than This. (The Walking Dead)

The Dead

"What can I do to help?" I ask grinning. "Hershel said I could stay." I don't know why I feel so happy about this. 

"Well," Lori starts, but is interrupted by Daryl. 

"Can ye hunt?" 

"Of course I can." I answer. 

"Good, let's go then. Here's yer weapons, and bag." Daryl thrusts the items at me. 

"Thanks." Why should I thank him for giving me my stuff? 

We walk through the woods, and I notice him tracking something. 

"What're you looking for?" I ask with a puzzled look. 

"Not what, who. This little girl, Sophia, Carol's kid, went missing when we were up on the highway. S'only been a few days so I know we'll find her." 

"I'm sorry." 

"Don' be, ye weren there." I hear bushes rustling and ready my bow. A rabbit comes into view and I pull the trigger. I grab my prize and stuff it in my bag. 

"'Can ye hunt'?" I mimic his southern accent, and laugh. 

"Tch." Is his reply. 

"So, did you have any family?" I ask. 

"Eh. My brother Merle is still out here somewhere. The rest I don like to talk about." 

"Yeah. My dad was nonexistant and my mom, a drunk." I think back to before all this, spending my nights with a bottle just like she did. " Kinda rubbed off on me." 

"Usually does. Hold on." Daryl bends down, observing some footprints. "Damn, just walkers." Right on cue, a couple walkers pop out from the bushes. I walk up to one, and back away slowly, taunting it. It swings at me, and I catch its arm, driving my knife into it's eye. I bend down and search the pockets, finding some bullets, a lighter, and a half full pack of smokes. 

"Score! Want one?" I say offering him the pack after I light one. He takes it and lights it. 

"Ye don' seem like a smoker." 

"I don't seem like a lot of things, Dixon. But everyone can be surprising at times." I say with a playful smile. "So, why did you want me to come with you so badly? Lori was trying to say something and you cut her off." 

"Was she? I didn't hear her say anything." 

I scoff and reload my bow. After bagging a few more rabbits and a couple squirrels we head back, Carol runs up to us, and Daryl shakes his head solemnly. 

I go back into the tent that I stayed in, and change into a pair of black shorts, a t shirt and a hoodie. I pull a beanie over my messy brown hair and head back into the hot Georgia sun, dirty clothes in hand. 

I take them over to the washing station and begin to scrub at them. I notice Carol, red eyed and she seems to have a fading bruise on the side of her face. I place a hand on her shoulder. 

"I'm sorry about Sophia." I say. 

She weakly smiles. "Thank you." 

I finish washing up and decide to take a walk around the farm. 

"Mina, can you help me out a second here?" Maggie calls to me from a stable. 

"Sure thing." I say with a smile. "What's up?" 

"Can you help me with feeding the horses please?" 

"Of course." I grab onto a bucket of food for the horses, and empty it into the trough, and giving the horse a soft pet.