Kiddo- Daryl Dixon/OC

Chapter 4- Teamwork

Without hesitation Daryl picked up one of the animals and threw it over his shoulder. I was amazed how strong he really was. I attempted to do the same but couldn't. I stood there tugging and trying to lift the deer for a few minutes until I heard him chuckling at me.

"What?" I said looking at him.

"Nothin' let me help ya."

He sat his back down on the ground, picked it up and sat it across my shoulders. As he sat it on my shoulders I let out a grunt trying to maintain my balance.

"Do ya got it?"

I nodded as and took a few steps getting adjusted to the extra thirty pounds lying across my shoulders. I knew this was going to be a long trip back to camp. Honestly I didn't even know why I was trying so hard, but to be honest I was hungry and this would mean I could eat for several days, that was better than nothing. Daryl picked up the other one and threw it over his shoulder again.

We walked along the path we followed to get down to the clearing. We hadn't even been walking for ten minutes and I was already struggling to stay on my feet, it became harder to breath and sweat was dripping off my face.

"Ya alrite kiddo?" Daryl asked seeing my condition.

I gasped for a few breaths before answering him, "Yea... I'll be fine."

"If ya need a break we can stop. I don't want ya passing out before we get back to camp."

I nodded as we kept walking.

"So did ya have any nicknames before all this shit?" I could tell he was trying to get my mind off of my body aches and tiredness.

"A few of the ladies that worked in the wing I lived in called me Ali. I didn't socialize much so not very many people knew my name."

"Did ya got a lot of friends where ya lived?"

I shook my head, "I wasn't really close to anyone to call them a friend." I gasped for a few breaths of air and wiped the sweat off my face. "Can we stop for a minute?" I asked leaning against a tree.

Daryl nodded as he sat our stuff down on the ground. "Do ya want me to take it off ya shoulders?" he asked nodding his head towards the deer on my back.

"No, I'll be ok. If you take it off I have a feeling I won't be able to carry it anymore." I leaned into the tree more to give my legs a rest. "How far away do you think we are from the camp?" oh please God tell me not too much farther.

"'Bout a mile."

I groaned and hit my head against the tree. I hoped that I would make it.

"Jus' think of how good we'll be able to eat for the next week or so."

He had a point; I would be helping a lot of people and myself. All I needed to do was get this deer back to camp. I straightened my posture and took a few steps.

"I think I'm ok, let's get back before dark" I looked up at the sky; it would be sunset in about half an hour. I could feel I was walking slower, all I wanted to do was just fall over and go to sleep but I had to keep going. The thought of eating deer meat and people being happy around a camp fire kept me going. My vision was starting to blur and my chest hurt to breath, it felt like I got kicked in the rib cage and in the lungs.

"Alice?!" I heard Daryl yell.

"Huh, what?" I stammered, getting pulled back into reality; surprisingly I had still kept walking even though I was dazed.

"I've been callin' yer name, are ya ok?" he sounded really concerned.

"How much... farther... are we?" I had to take breaths in between each word.