Double Crossbow (Daryl Dixon) [The Walking Dead]

Chapter 12 ↣ How do you know that?

"Having perfected our disguise, we spend our lives searching for someone we don't fool."

— Robert Brault

↣ ↢

Kathryn

I BROUGHT MY legs up underneath me as I sank further into the cushion of one of the R.V. seats. I stared out the window at the city becoming smaller and smaller. I had never been to Atlanta before all this happened. Never had the time, or the extra money. Everything I had, which wasn't much, went towards college. I was dead set on graduating, finding a long-term job, and getting the hell out of my hometown. There was nothing there for me.

I could just hear the roar of Daryl's bike over the R.V.'s own engine. He had swapped out his truck for the bike to save on gas, leaving me in the R.V. There was now another spot because Jacqui had stayed behind at the CDC. I had also gathered that Andrea wanted to stay as well, but Dale has prevented her from doing so. I didn't think he knew what those repercussions would entail. You can't force someone into living their life. They had to find a reason themselves.

I wasn't missing Daryl's company, that's for sure. Without having him near me, it made it ten times easier to forget what had occurred at the CDC. Which had been a mistake, and a big one at that.

"Looks complicated," Andrea said, referring to the act of cleaning a gun.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way," Shane replied. "I could clean yours, show you how."

I rolled my eyes at their flirting. It didn't seem possible for Andrea to think he actually had an interest in her. I thought it was obvious he was trying to distract himself from the person he truly felt for: Lori. Apparently, she was just as blind as most people in group were. Dale's voice pulled me from my thoughts, "Oh, jeez."

Leaning against the driver and passenger seats, I saw that there were numerous cars in our way. The rumble of a bike grew louder as Daryl pulled up besides the driver's side window. That was my cue. I quickly returned to where I was previously sitting. A few moments later, the R.V. started crawling through the wreckage. No doubt following behind Daryl's lead. I cringed as I saw people of every kind all dead in their cars.

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a loud clank and hiss sounded. Looking to the front, I saw a cloud of steam, most likely caused by the radiator hose.

"I said it didn't I?" Dale said as we all piled out of the R.V. "A thousand times, dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked in a tone that made me want to punch him.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of..." Dale trailed off as he looked over to Daryl, who was searching through the trunk of a nearby truck. "Okay, that was dumb."  

"If you can't find a radiator hose here—"

I cut Shane off, growing tired of his annoying voice, "Then we'd have to be blind. One of these cars is bound to have a hose close enough to fix the R.V. Not to mention we can find other things that are going to come in handy."

T-Dog stepped up, "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start."

"Maybe some water," Carol added.

"Food," Glenn contributed.

"This is a graveyard," Lori said with a worried note to her voice. An awkward silence filled the air before she added, "I don't know how I feel about this."

"It's only a graveyard if we die here," I said, "and that's not going to happen."

The atmosphere lightened some, and people went their separate ways to start searching through the cars. I saw Daryl went right, so I, on the other hand, went left. I was doing what I did best, avoiding the situation, avoiding my feelings. I jumped into the back of a pickup and started looking through the bags. It consisted mostly of clothes, all of which were not the most convenient for the end of the world.