Never Let Go (Daryl Dixon)

Hide and Seek

A/N Just a small note, I just wanted to thank for reading! And please comment! ✌🏻❤

️My small handgun sits securely in the waste band of my olive pants. The cross bow is loaded with a new arrow, along with the collection of arrows on my back. The colorful feathers stick out for show, with the deadly tip concealed at the bottom. My arrow supply is running low, so I try to conserve as many as I can. I may even need to resort to the switchblade to produce the lease amount of noise.

The soles of my boots crunch the dead leaves and twigs on the moist ground. I brush some loose branches away from my face, some still managing to scratch against my cheek. Daryl stares intently at the ground, intensely focused. He points to the ground, "See that? Footsteps." I furrow my brows, "What in the hell are you talking about?" Honestly I don't see anything. "You don't see that?" He looks confused.

He continues following the trail of supposed "footsteps" for a few feet. I hear the slight rushing of a stream, up ahead. Keeping the crossbow in firing position, we both approach the area. Rick emerges from the other half of the woods, the lower half of his pants sopping wet and a bit of walker blood splatter. "Daryl Dixon, master tracker." I laugh. "Told you those were footsteps Sunshine."

We both jog up to Rick, seeing Sophia nowhere in sight. "Where's the girl." Daryl asks. Rick scans the area, looking at the hollowed section of a fallen tree. "I told her to stay in there. If she had to get out, keep the sun on her left shoulder." I ponder for a moment all the possibilities. The bad out way the good. "She could be back at the highway." I blow a strand of hair away from my eyes.

We make our way back through the foliage and brush of the forest. We respond to every single sound around us. On the journey back we spot a walker. I walk up behind it, jabbing the switchblade through its skull. Daryl rolls it over, "Guessing it just had a meal." The walkers teeth are stained with fresh dark crimson blood. Rick pulls a chunk of flesh out of it's mouth.

"There's only one way to find out" Daryl says, pulling out his dagger. Slowly, he plunges the knife in its abdomen, ripping it apart. Going thorough the contents, entrails and organs spill out. I would gag if I hadn't seen this done to animals before. "Eh, probably a raccoon or somethin'." He says. Behind him, I see a walker slowly creeping up. I whip out my pistol, blowing the head off.

Back on the highway, everyone waits anxiously to see our findings. Disappointed when we come back empty handed. "You didn't find her?" Carol says worried. "No, I'm sorry." Rick explains that he left her in the tree and provided a distraction for the walkers. "You left my daughter out there?! How could you?!" Carol yells. "Look, it was the only option. We don't stop looking for her." Rick's voice is nice and calm.

"You can't just leave a child on there own like that?!" She keeps yelling and quite frankly it's getting on my nerves. "Look, Rick went out there when no one else did! He risked his life out there! You were sitting under the car sobbing the whole time! Hell, if that was my child I be on there in a heartbeat!" There's more I want to say, but I just mutter "Forget it." before making my way in Dale's RV.

I need something to take my mind off the frustration. Slowly I start taking apart my gun. I hadn't exactly cleaned the thing in a while. I start to get aggravated quite easily, unable to remove certain parts. I hear two knocks at the door. "Come in." Shane steps in with his hands in his pockets, leaning against the table. "That took some guts." I huff at my mess on the table. "I can't stand people like that." He slides into the seat in front of the table.

"I agree with that." My hands fumble over the bottom, trying to slide it out. "No, no. Your doing it all wrong." He laughs. He removes it from my hands, me feeling somewhat relief. He slides out the bottom, removes the top pieces and neatly put it back together.(I'm not exactly sure how you take apart a gun, so I just quickly made that up :))

"You know, we never got to know each other." He says. I laugh, "There's not much to know. I lived on a farm, I have no family, I don't give up easily and I'm stubborn when I want to be." He slowly starts to reach for my hand, so I pull its away. "Relax." He takes it, twisting it over revealing a thin line of dripping blood. He smears it will his thumb, trying to rub it off. I notice him taking occasional glances at me, making me look down. "Did I ever tell you, you have beautiful eyes."