Tragic Coincidence | Daryl Dixon

Chapter Fourteen.

Five months.....

That's how long it has been since the night the farm got attacked. That is how long ago we lost several members of our group. And that is just how long it took for all of us to loose just about all the hope we could come up with....

It was February, and incredibly cold. Snow was covering the ground by at least a foot, and game was extremely hard to find this time of year...But they were easy to track since footprints in the snow were easy to see. The group was held up in a small shack we found in the woods a month ago, and over a dozen people in one tiny shack was making everyone on edge....even more so then normal.

Lori was almost over due, and I was expecting the baby to come any day now. The stress of not having a permanent place to hunker down, lack of food and restless sleep was putting too much stress on her already fragile state...and not just her, everything was seriously wearing down all of us. Dale had gotten sick a couple weeks ago and he wasn't getting any better, and we were dangerously low on medical supplies...I had been meaning to make a run to find more soon.

Carl had grown up way too much in the time we were given...He had been hardened by extraneous circumstances, and I think he felt it was his duty to protect his family, and it was sad that was his job as a twelve year old boy. He and his dad had formed some sort of unbreakable bond lately, and I was glad  they were spending so much time together, seeing as how we were never guaranteed the next day.

Daryl and I were rarely ever at the shack with the rest of the group, we spent our days trying to find game to hunt, patrolling the area and basically staying as close to each other as possible. Daryl was true to his word when he said he wouldn't ever leave me, he rarely left my side. Where you found Daryl, you found me and I cant say I was complaining. Daryl and I weren't the chattiest of people, But i could tell there was something special between us.

Lately we had been thinking we wanted to scout out to a town nearby and find somewhere new to fortify  the group for a while..the only reason we hadn't done that before is because of the snow storms that kept showing up. But spring was right around the corner, and I knew the snow would start to melt in the weeks to come. Daryl and I now were currently hunting in the woods around the shack, just like every day before. 

We desperately needed to find meat for the group, we ran out of anything canned two days ago. Daryl and I were the last to get food, which meant we both got the smallest portion. But I wouldn't take food from a child, the elderly, or a pregnant woman no matter how hungry I got...I would just suffer in silence just like I had always done.

Daryl held an arm out to stop me form walking any farther, and I couched down to the ground and followed his lead. He pointed to a tree that held a squirrel..one single squirrel was sitting on the branch of the tree, snow covering his feet. Daryl put down his crossbow and nodded at me, silently telling me to take the kill. I pulled back the string on my bow and closed my right eye, my arm shook slightly from lack of eating lately, but I quickly steadied it. The squirrel was licking its foot, oblivious to the fact it was about to become dinner. I took a deep breath and let my arrow fly through the air, hitting him directly in the eye. Since knowing Daryl I had become a much better shot with my bow, not that I couldn't shoot well before.

The squirrel fell to the ground without a sound, and Daryl ran up and yanked it up ripped the arrow out of it's head and tossed it back to me. He tied the squirrel to his belt and smirked at me while walking in the direction of the shack. I sighed, looked around for any other predators and quickly followed Daryl back to the group.

Shane and Glenn were on watch outside when we made it back, both had eyes peeled with rifle's in their hands. "Dinner" Daryl said holding up the squirrel and placing his crossbow onto his back. "That ain't much" Shane said scoffing at the pair of us. Daryl became suddenly infuriated "You want something bigger, find it yourself" He said shoving his past, but not before grabbing my hand and dragging me behind him.