Daryl Dixon's Family

Chapter 51

~~~~Third persons view~~~~

The group continues to reel from the deaths of Beth and Tyresse with Maggie, Sasha and Daryl taking the losses the hardest.

60 miles away from Washington D.C, the survivors' van runs out of gas, forcing them to travel on foot in the midst of a drought. With almost no water, they begin to question their chances of survival. Father Gabriel attempts to console Maggie, but she chastises him for abandoning his flock when the outbreak occurred.

Rick orchestrates a plan to eliminate the threat of a pursuing herd of walkers which will require minimal exertion from the exhausted group.

However, Sasha breaks from the working plan with recklessness that leads to several group members' narrowly avoiding bites, Hunter being one of them, and Abraham is wounded when Sasha cuts him unapologetically. Sasha is angrily rebuked by Michonne who warns her not to end up like Sasha's brother, Tyreese.

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Later, the group are sat in the Forest and are all still hungry and without food. Tara remarks: 'So all we found was booze?' and they watch, as Abraham opens up what appears to be a small bottle of whiskey and begins to drink from it.

Tara and Rosita agree that “this will only make things worse” but Eugene tells them that Abraham is a grown man and that he himself truly does not believe that anything can get worse.

Rosita replies that 'they can' and seconds later they are confronted by a pack of feral dogs, one, a Doberman Pinscher is still wearing a collar.

Daryl pulls out his knife but flinches and looks away as Sasha dispatches the dogs with a silenced weapon before they can get any closer and then Rick stands up and begins to collect branches to make a fire.

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Ava's P. O. V

We were cooking the meat on the fire and eating, and I see Noah sitting on the ground staring at a blue dog collar lying discarded in the dirt.

As we eat, I see Father Gabriel throw his priest collar into the fire, signifying his lost faith.

I've been trying my hardest to help his grieving, but Daryl, just pushes me away lightly, or she change the subject, which was, Venus, she, even though not actually here can make her father smile, which is what Ava had been waiting to see for a while know and she had missed it, "don't forget you can come to me Dare promise me you will get me whenever you need me, k?, I know you need time Dare, just don't push us,  me out" I plea to him, he kisses my lips quickly then said he was gonna go see if there was anything to hunt, and was gone.

~~~Third persons view~~~

Daryl begins to self-harm, even though his wife Ava has been trying her hardest to be there for him and to comfort him, so when alone, he breaks down in tears.

Dangerously dehydrated, the survivors find four jugs and ten bottles of water waiting for them in the middle of the road with a note reading, "from a friend". Eugene volunteers to drink the water himself to see if it's safe but is stopped by Abraham amidst concerns it may be a trap.

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That night, a heavy thunderstorm breaks out, allowing the survivors to replenish their water supplies before taking shelter in a nearby barn. There, Rick relates a story of his grandfather, who fought world war 2, and only survived by convincing himself that he was already a dead man. Rick instructs the group that like his grandfather, they have to live with reality, to "do what they have to do", and tell themselves they "are the walking dead". Daryl angrily rejects Rick's notion, insisting that they aren't "them." A heard of walkers is then spotted approaching the barn; the group works together to fend them off by barricading the door.

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The next morning, the survivors discover the storm itself has destroyed the walkers, throwing them onto broken branches and uprooting trees on top of them while narrowly sparing the barn.

While watching the sunrise, Sasha tells Maggie that she doesn't know how to carry on. The two are then approached by a man named Aaron, who identifies himself as a "friend" and asks for Rick by name. They point their guns at him suspiciously.

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