Freebird || The Walking Dead

Prologue

*Set a few months after the downfall of the farm*

     Daryl stared at the picture of his little girl in his trembling hands. He vaguely felt the bark of the tree he was resting against dig into his back, but he didn't care. The only thing he could really feel was the grief of a parent who had lost their only child.
     Tears slipped their way down his dirty face, leaving stripes of pain. They fell off his chin and into his lap, dampening his pants. Again, he didn't care. He traced his little girl's face with his thumb, his lip quivering. He almost lost it right there. He wanted to kill someone; himself or Merle, he wasn't sure. He didn't know who's fault it was that he lost his daughter, his little Freebird. He internally chuckled at the name, remembering how much his daughter had hated it. How she had refused to answer to it, instead claiming her middle name, Jade, as her primary identification method. He knew it would've broke her momma's heart, but the bitch didn't even hang around long enough to see her daughter crawl. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear Rick calling his name.
     "Daryl? Daryl! Daryl!?"
     Daryl quickly wiped away his tears and stuffed the picture of his daughter in his pocket.
     "Yeah?" He called, his Southern twang very noticeable.
     "Daryl! What the hell man? Why weren't you answering?" Rick asked, worried for the man he thought of as a brother.
     "Sorry Rick, was takin' a leak," Daryl lied smoothly, subconsciously touching the pocket that the picture of his little girl was in.
     "Oh, yeah, alright," Rick said, a little embarrassed he had gotten so worked up over nothing. "Well um, dinner's ready, if ya want some?"
     Daryl nodded. "Jus' a minute," he mumbled.
     "Sure man, just... be careful," Rick said softly, walking back to the house they had decided to stay in for the time being.
     After Rick was out of sight, Daryl pulled out the picture of his baby girl again. He kissed it, and whispered a small "I'm sorry," into the fading and ripped paper. Sometimes he liked to think that she was alive somewhere, and that one day, he really would get to tell her just how sorry he was.

A/N: Hello loves! A few things:
1) The first official chapter will be set at a very different time, a few years in the future, so watch out for that time jump!
2) I made both the cover and trailer for this book, so if you liked them and want one for your own book, you should go check out my books TRAILERS and COVERSHOP.
3) Make sure to vote, comment, share, follow, blah, blah, whatever it is that you do! But I do very much appreciate votes and comments :)
4) This will possibly turn into a Carl Grimes romance as well, it really depends on what you readers want! That part is up to (the majority of) you.
5) Please comment on how I can make this story better. Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, details, etc. I accept all types of comments, but blatant hate comments directed at (a) certain group(s) of people (homophobic, racist, etc comments) will be immediately deleted and you will be reported. But constructive criticism and encouragement is not only allowed, but embraced.
6) Most chapters will be much longer than this. I usually try to have a standard of 1k words per chapter (or about 10 pages for people on mobile). This is just short because it's the prologue.
Thanks lovelies <3
~Chronicle