Indestructible (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

The Lone Survivor

         

I woke up to three hard knocks on the IWV's front door. I slid my hand under my pillow and grabbed the dagger hidden under it before reaching up and flipping on the cameras. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Shane standing by the door waiting for me to open it. I put the dagger back. I opened up the door quickly sliding out without giving him the chance to get a good look inside. "What's going on?" I looked at the sky calculating that it couldn't be past 7:30am. "We're getting ready to roll out, thought you might want to help go through all the vehicles one last time before moving on." He looked me over with something I couldn't quite place in his eyes.  Deciding I would figure it out later I nodded my head and waited for him to walk away before opening up the IWV's door and reaching for my bow and a duffle bag.

I started rummaging through a silver Mazda and found some jumper cables and a small hatchet. I knew I personally didn't need the cables but they could still be useful for the others. Moving on to the next vehicle, I dug through a truck bed and found some bolts for a crossbow and a few arrows that would fit my recurve bow, upon further digging I also found a shovel, with a shrug I decided to hang onto it. I saw Daryl a couple cars ahead of me and decided to go ahead and pass along the bolts to him. As I walked over with them in hand he glanced over in my direction and then kept going through the car. I passed Shane walking the other direction on the way to Daryl and felt his hand brush across my leg. I glanced back for a moment before ignoring it and putting it at the back of my mind. When I got to Daryl I handed the bolts over and received a nod in return. That was all. I guess someone isn't a person of the morning. Wait, unenjoyable person of morning, or was it just non-morning person? As I argued with myself in my head about the exact analogy I headed to a different car. Not finding much wasn't a big surprise, I had already been through most of these abandoned cars, and I assumed many others had too.

Thankfully Rick finally announced it was time to go. I had three knives, a shovel, a hatchet, a jumper cable, fifteen arrows, a revolver, and a leather jacket to add to my inventory. We all checked in with him about what we had found and he smiled at my jumper cables and commented that he hadn't thought of grabbing any. His small remark of appraisal made me smile all the way back to my IWV. As I climbed behind the wheel I waited for the others to start moving forward so I could follow.

While driving along behind the others I couldn't help but wonder how far these people would make it. Assuming they would last this entire thing out was ignorant, most of them would probably die from simple human mistakes such as slowed reflexes, trying to be heroic, or a miscalculated bullet; then the others would probably die from disease or injury, without doctors and hospitals they had no way to fully heal in time. As soon as this group terminated I would have to find another, or at least find a completely secure location where I could wait this thing out on my own. I only hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon, I liked this group. They were smart, careful, and had enough people to lighten everyday tasks. Rick was a good leader, he kept everyone calm and safe, this group functioned like clockwork. Everyone had a specific set of uses and skills, everyone was valuable.

I also couldn't help but wonder who would go first. It would probably be the kids. I frowned at the thought. But they're just so young. I assumed the older ones such as Dale and Carol would be some of the first too. They weren't as fast as the others, they weren't as strong. It all went back to the most primal instinct. Survival of the fittest. People like Daryl, Shane, Rick, Andrea, T-Dog, and Glenn would go last, they were fast, strong, smart. Everything it took to survive in this type of world. But still, the probability of them hanging on to the end was extremely slim. The only people that had the skill set to survive in this world easily, were people like me. But, that was kind of the problem. Their weren't any other people like me. I was one of a kind. An original. For some reason that thought made my stomach churn. What if this thing never ended, what if out of 7.3 billion people I was the only one left alive. I was only indestructible, not immortal.

Right then I decided no matter what I wouldn't let myself be the only survivor. I was going to make sure somebody made it with me. I would protect them. Keep them safe. Take care of them no matter what.

But who?