Rock Bottom (Daryl Dixon/ TWD)

Chapter 18

Agh!! Here it is guys!! Comment and tell me what you think! Love you guys so much.
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Daryl told me not to believe the things i tell myself late at night.

If you knew what's those things where, you'd want to run and hide. Although Daryl's advice was good, the things that I laid awake at night thinking about where mostly true.

Rotting corpses walking, the screams of my family and friends as the dead consumed them, and yet here I stand, alive.

I often wondered how I managed to last this long, I was a loner, a scrapper, until the day I found Daryl and the rest if the group.

It was easy for me to believe that people like Hershel still survived, bless his heart. And Carl and Beth, two young adults with so much to learn, it's a shame they have to learn it in a world like ours.

We'd survived long enough to maintain some livestock, for butcher of course. And Hershel and I planted plenty of crops by hand.

A few weeks ago Michone was on a run when she found a few horses and a mule. She brought them back and I helped her with training then.

Just as things were looking up for us, they went down just as fast. The safety of our fences may not last much longer. The walkers would herd at the fence line over night.

And we'd have to clear them out the next day, many of the newer group members would help with that, I've done it a few times. And it was awful, Being so close to those who once filled the offices and busy highways, it made you feel like you were killing a new friend, although it was nothing alike the sort.

I tried to focus on things like Daryl and the horses.Things I loved. Thing I needed to keep my mind from wondering to the unmentionable.

I went on runs often, with Michone. Her and I had become close through the horses, we'd ride out of the front if the prison, silently and efficiently. I would use my hatchet and she'd use her katana. Together we'd cover lots if ground and gather essentials for our growing group.

I'd proved myself to be a useful member of the group, going on runs, cooking and babysitting, I did anything that was needed of me.

I kept myself busy. I needed to, the things I've seen are things you don't get to forget.

As for Daryl, I've never doubted Daryl, he's a soldier, a survivor. He seems as though he's still falling in love with me, and I him.

My train of thought de-railed when the sound of Daryl's motorcycle startled the grazing horses.

I jogged out of the small pens built for the horses, locking the gate behind me. And rushed to the cell block where Daryl dismounted his motorcycle.

He dropped his crossbow, a hard look on his face. But he still opened his arms wide for me. I happily jumped up onto him, wrapping my skinny legs around his waist and my arms around his necks. He hold me up by the bum and kisses my cheek, before he sets me down.

"It was a close one, we lost Zack." He said, almost blankly.

I nodded, I'd almost gotten used to loosing people. But it still upset's me, but I'm done crying over what's happened in the past. Even if the past was ten minutes ago.

"Should we tell Beth?" I asked cautiously.

"Together?" He said looking down at me lovingly.

"Together." I confirmed.

We linked hands, his calloused hands consuming my small, softer ones. My warmth radiating onto his cold ones. And we walked through the cement walls of the prison together.

We reached Beth's customized cell. And I stood with Daryl in the doorway. She looked up at us and smiled softly.

"Who was it?" She asked expectingly.

"Zack." Daryl answers calmly.

She stands up and brushes her pants off. And walks over to her dresser, changing the number on her work place safety board. I smiled sympathetically.

I reached out and hugged her. And she buried her head I'm my shoulder.

Daryl spoke from behind us. "Maybe were all just sick of loosing people."

It broke my heart to hear Daryl say that, it didn't take a genius to realize he was talking about Merle. After Beth let go of me and shuffled back to her cot, Daryl led me to our little room in the lookout tower of the cafeteria.

He sat on our mattress, with me placed of his lap, my head rested on his firm chest.

"Merle left me, when we were kids, he left me to get beat, he never loved me, he never cared, he was a man of himself." His rough voice sounded around me.

"Those are my demons, those are the lies, and I have believed them for the very last time." Daryl said, brushing little patterns on the exposed skin on my shoulders.