Barely Surviving // TWD // Daryl Dixon #Wattys2016

Chapter XXXV -- The Lake

"The only really good performance is the one where you make yourself vulnerable,

while pushing beyond your familiar comfort zone."

― Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

I leaned against the turquoise green Hyundai as I waited for Daryl, Maggie was up in the tower on watch and she said it was alright to leave now.

I turned to look at the prison when I heard the door opening again, I saw Rick coming out first, followed by Daryl. Rick looked like he was giving instructions to Daryl and he just nodded at whatever Rick was telling him. I frowned when I noticed Daryl wasn't walking in my direction but a bit further to the right.

Rick stood in front of Daryl, pointed at Daryl's chest and said something else and with that he walked to the fence. I saw Daryl getting on his motorcycle and I just opened my eyes wide at him, walking towards him.

"Woah, what are you doing? Rick gave me the keys, you know?" I exclaimed, holding the keys and raising my hand to show them to him.

"I know, he told me," Daryl said, starting the engine. "But there are many blocked roads now, I think it will be quicker if we use this instead of the car."

"But..."

"It'll be fine, now hurry, we are wasting time, come on."

Nervously, I got on the motorcycle as well, I slowly wrapped my arms around his waist, not sure if that was okay with him but I didn't want to fall.

"It's okay," he told me, like if he were reading my mind. "You better tighten your grip."

And before he finished his sentence, we started moving. He didn't need to tell me twice, I tightened my grip so much that I thought I was going to leave a mark or make it hard to breathe for him but he didn't tell me anything about loosing it.

Rick opened the gate and we passed past him, I wanted to wave at him but I just couldn't let go of Daryl, I was so scared even when he wasn't even driving fast.

To be honest I had no idea where we were going, I just knew he drove in the opposite direction of Woodbury, which was probably the safest and smartest choice.

Daryl accelerated a bit and when he noticed I didn't tighten my grip even more or say anything to him, he accelerated even more, as more minutes passed I started to relax and actually enjoy the ride, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the breeze against my face, the feeling of freedom I had now was overwhelming and there weren't walkers around so I wasn't worried about falling into a death trap at the moment.

Daryl eventually stopped the bike, I released my grip on him and I cautiously got off the motorcycle, Daryl turned to me with a smirk on his lips.

"What?"

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" he asked me.

"No, not really," I admitted.

We found a small grocery shop, we banged on the shutters first, and we didn't hear any moans or noise inside so we ventured to open them after Daryl cut the padlock, there was nothing inside, except for a couple of rats, some dead, some alive.

I would have screamed but I knew that we had to be as quiet as possible, so I just jumped out of their way when the rats ran out of the shop. I let Daryl walked in first, just in case there were more rats inside.

We found lots of cans and quickly threw them inside the bag I had brought, we also found what I would consider a treasure. We found about two dozens of chocolate bars and lots of candies, I almost squealed when I spotted them and quickly grabbed a plastic bag that was on the counter and threw inside all the chocolates and candy in sight, Daryl just chuckled at me.