❛ now daryl, daryl was gray. he always seemed to be bitter and emotionless with no other dimensions to himself; his mere presence was the only one. gray was intriguing, almost acting like an acquired taste, but it had the potential to be beautiful t...
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fifty two.
Daryl and I woke up just as the sun began to rise to meet up with Aaron for a supply run. The two of us had accepted our positions to become recruiters last night just before celebrating with maybe a few too many glasses of wine. My brain was still a little foggy, but I could manage. Daryl hopped on his motorcycle that Aaron gave him, me sitting down behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist. I've never ridden on a motorcycle before so I was nervous, but I knew I was safe with Daryl driving. We rolled up to the gate and sat at the entrance, waiting for Nicholas to open it. Aaron sat in a car behind us. He let Daryl lead the way since he was so good at sensing out where to go. Nicholas finally pulled the gates open, checking me out while he did so.
"You best stop starin' at my girl," Daryl hissed at him before revving the motorcycle's engine to scare him off. I grinned, laughing to myself as I hugged Daryl tighter. Nicholas glared at him and scurried to the side as we sped off onto the street, my hair blowing behind me in the cool wind. My stomach filled with butterflies as we flew down the road. It felt like we were flying and I loved every minute of it, my head resting my against his back; the warm leather of his angel wing vest caressed my cheek. It was a good while of me enjoying the ride and being as close to Daryl as I could get before the pharmacy we were planning on searching came up on our left. I sighed with sadness knowing I had to get up and leave Daryl's warmth and comfort. He turned into the deserted parking lot. He parked his bike in front of the store, Aaron pulling into the weed-ridden empty parking space next to us. Aaron got out of the car and opened the door so Daryl could retrieve his crossbow from the backseat; my sword had already been in its sheath across my back. We crept towards the dusted over doors of the pharmacy, the door creaking open. Our weapons were already propped up and ready to fire. I decided to split from Daryl and Aaron, heading down one of the first aisles to cover more ground faster. I tried my best to be quiet as I scanned for any biters, stepping lightly so my footsteps were silent.
"Drop your weapons," an unfamiliar voice demanded from a few aisles away. My heart leaped, my grip on my sword only tightening even more. I stopped dead in my tracks, afraid they had eyes on me or that there were more than one of them tracking us.
"W-we don't want any trouble, sir," I heard Aaron sputter fearfully.
"Drop your damn weapons or I'll blow your brains out," the man growled. My eyes nervously flitted around where I was just to double check and see if I was truly being watched by someone else. Nothing targeted me in the nearest vicinity. I took a deep shuddery breath before starting to cautiously tip-toe by the ends of each aisle in hopes to locate the man so I could get a leverage on him. I stumbled upon him four lanes away with Daryl and Aaron. I stopped dead in my tracks again, staring at Aaron's nervous face. He better not give me away by the way he keeps looking over here or else it was over for me. The man had his back to me, pointing his gun at the two. Their weapons were on the floor like he instructed them to do earlier.
"There was three of ya," he whispered. I started to tip-toe up behind him, my heart beating faster by the second. "Where's that pretty little lady you came in here with," he asked adamantly. Daryl and Aaron stayed silent. My stomach began to twist in knots. Fuck this man. I didn't give a fuck what he wanted to do to me at this moment since I was about to do what I couldn't do at Terminus and kill this creep. "Where is she," the man yelled impatiently. Aaron's eyes flickered over to me again, watching me with helplessness like he wanted me to do something right this very moment.
"I'm right here, motherfucker," I grinned maniacally. The man turned around towards me, caught off guard at my aggression. I didn't give him a moment to say or do anything. I quickly plunged my sword into his chest, the tip of it protruding from his back and blood dripping onto the ground. Red soaked his shirt around the insertion of my sword. His gun clattered to the ground, thankfully, without firing. He gargled in pain, his hollering muffled by the blood creeping up his throat. "I'm right here and you can't do shit to me," I whispered, letting a few droplets of blood leak out of the corner of his lip before I pulled my sword out from his chest. I wiped the blood that slathered the blade onto his pant leg. I didn't want any part of him to contaminate my skin or clothes. I could still hear him wheezing, just barely begging for mercy under his breath. Goddammit, he was still alive. I picked his gun up off the ground, observing the sleekness of it. It was a pretty nice gun. Shame he'd die by his own weapon, though. l shot him in the head and sighed. I finally gazed up at Daryl and Aaron. Aaron's mouth was open in disbelief while Daryl kept a straight face, an almost smirk stretching across his lips.
"C'mon now, Aaron, the way you kept looking over at me could've gotten me killed," I huffed while I handed the gun over to Daryl who shoved it into his pocket. "You gotta learn to keep more of a straight face."
"I-I'm sorry," he apologized, still bewildered at what he just witnessed. He really seemed rocked. I'm not sure if he'd ever witnessed something like that before. If he didn't, I honestly felt sorry for him. But how could he have gone this long while being a recruiter and not seen a murder? "I didn't know what I was supposed to do! I just— how could you just do that with, with no emotion? You just ended a man's life without a second thought."
"He was gonna kill me," I answered, shoving my sword back into its sheath. "And you guys were goin' down with me if you didn't give me up. You gotta make decisions as fast as you can now and sometimes it's better for a motherfucker to end up dead just to be safe. You can't risk the possibility of someone following you back and gettin' you when you're caught off guard. Sometimes certain kills are harder than others, but you gotta make sure you don't end up dead." I turned around and made my way over to the medicine aisle.
"That's my girl," I heard Daryl mutter while I sauntered away, his eyes running up and down my body. I gathered up some pain killers and brought an armful over to Aaron who shoved them in his backpack. Aaron counted them and then sent me back to pick up a different kind of medicine they needed in the infirmary. I turned around to go pick up the last few bottles of today's run but ran straight into Daryl. He opened up his palm to reveal a silver necklace, a small heart charm hanging off of it just like the other one I used to have before that fateful night at Terminus. "Yer other one was gone." My hand flew to my chest instinctively, touching the empty space where the necklace once hung. I was filled with sadness.
"Yeah," I muttered, remembering what had happened to it. "They, uh... they..." My stomach felt slightly sick, my knees locking up.
"Hey, it's okay. You don't need to explain." Daryl lovingly swept my hair over my shoulder. "Here, I'll put it on ya." He swung the necklace over my head, his fingers brushing against my skin which caused me to shiver as he hooked the necklace. He planted a soft kiss on my neck after he was done. I turned around and pecked him on the cheek in return, giving him a warm smile as my hand rested on the side of his face.
"I love it," I whispered to him, my thumb running over his skin lovingly. Daryl smiled.
"You guys ready," Aaron interrupted us, standing at the door. I could tell he was ready to get the fuck outta here and back to Alexandria.
"Yeah," I confirmed. "We're good." I gave Daryl another peck before the three of us exited the pharmacy, returning to our vehicles. I climbed onto Daryl's motorcycle after him, nuzzling my head back into the crook of his neck like I did before as he revved the engine. As we pulled out onto the road, I knew he was still smiling because of how close I was to him.
