Protection (Rick Grimes)

Chapter Thirty Five

I smile to myself as I see a deer not far from me. I load and raise my crossbow before aiming at the doe's head. I shoot and the deer drops. I smile widely and walk over to the doe. Pulling my arrow out of it's head, I wipe the blood off on my jeans and put the arrow in my quiver. I put my crossbow on my back and grab the deers back legs. I begin pulling the deer and realize that this is going to take a while. It's either I'm really weak or this deer is really heavy. I sigh and continue pulling the deer.

I don't want to leave it and go get Daryl because a walker might stumble up and claim it as it's own while I'm gone.
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When I get back to the cabin, Daryl is sitting outside. He sees me and instantly comes over to help.

"Good job." He praises.

"Learned from the best." I wink at him.

"Me or Merle?"

"You know damn well I mean you. I couldn't stand hunting with Merle." I chuckle. He slightly smiles.

While Daryl cleans the deer and dumps the remains far away from the cabin, I stay inside and sit down at the table.

Today is the second full day without the group. Daryl's right. We'll be okay. I just wish we could be okay with the group.

When Daryl walks inside, he searches the bags that we have and gets a water bottle.

"Stop doing that." He demands. I give him a confused look. "Biting your gums until they bleed. Stop. I know your upset." He grumbles and begins washing the blood off of the meat.

"I hope that don't ruin." I say, ignoring his demand.

"We'll have to eat it day after day." He tells me. I sigh and nod even though his back is turned to me.

~●~

I walk through the woods alone. Now, every time I'm alone, I can only think about me and Daryl's argument. How I yelled at him and finally mentioned want Dad did to me. How he thinks that I'm going to kill myself. How he doesn't trust me to be alone. He doesn't know that I left, but I know he'll find out.

I hear the oh-so-familiar groan of a walker. I get my knife out and turn around. I begin walking towards it but suddenly fall. A sharp pain shoots through my ankle, making me hiss in pain. The walker gets closer to me. I look down and see that my ankle is trapped in some kind of trap. I try to get my ankle out of the trap, but I'm not strong enough. I give up and grab my knife. The walker reaches down to bite me, but I push my knife through it's skull. It goes limp and falls on top of me. I push the walker off and pay attention to the trap that it crushing my ankle. I try to pry it off, but nothing works. I know the cabin isn't too far from here.

"Daryl!" I yell, not worrying about the possibility of walkers hearing me.

"Daryl, please!" I yell again at the top of my lungs.

"Dani?!" I hear him yell back.

"Daryl!" I yell as the pain gets worse. I see him in the distance. He has his crossbow loaded and is running towards me.

Tears form in my eyes as the pain increases. Daryl reaches me and drops his crossbow beside me. He makes eye contact and sees me crying before tending to my ankle. He eventually gets the trap off and gets my ankle out.

"You okay? Can ya walk?" He asks and helps me up. I continue to cry from the pain and try to walk. It hurts like hell, but I can. Well...I can at least limp.

"I can walk." I assure him and begin limping back towards the cabin.

"You're limpin' pretty badly. Here." He says. I turn to him and see him offering to give me a piggy back ride.