Norman Reedus Imagines

He saved me then I saved him (Daryl)

It had been three weeks since the governor had destroyed our home at the prison. I had wandered a couple days before Daryl found me. Since then we had been sleeping in cars or whatever abandoned homes we could find, but only one night at a time. We were always on the move, always looking for our friends.

"Here" Daryl said shrugging towards an abandoned mini-van.

We circle the van checking in the windows before we open the doors.

"Is there any of that squirrel left?" I say to Daryl

"mmpf" He mumbles, which I know to mean "No"

"Maybe I'll just go out for a bit and see if I can find something we can eat?" I wait for his reply but there is none. It wasn't really a question, but I was hoping he'd offer his service to go and do some hunting. I'm a good shot but he is the better hunter by far, and he'd been so moody and withdrawn lately that I am finding myself desperately looking for a way to bring him out.

At the prison we had actually been good friends, I too am an avid hunter, not quite as proficient as he is with stalking and tracking but I am almost as good a shot with my compound as he is with his crossbow. It almost seemed we might go somewhere before the Governor wrecked it for everyone.

I had considered him a good friend, but now that we are alone and seeing him withdraw into himself has made me realize just how much I care for Daryl. Not that I dare tell him that, he definitely does not seem like the romantic "let's have a relationship" type. Telling him would probably make him never want to talk to me again, and there is already very little conversation between us. Best not to make it even more awkward at night.

I looked around a bit, there is forest on both sides of the highway. But I don't see any signs of life, I can't even hear any birds. I spot some cat tails in the ditch and decide they will do, the roots can be charred over a fire and eaten and are actually not too bad.

I was only gone for 20 minutes but daryl already had a little fire going inside of a pot. Making a fire this way made it easier to put it out in a hurry if we needed to.

"Found some roots" I said

Daryl reaches out and grabs the roots from me and arranges them on the edge of his pot.

Great, another quiet night.

"Someone's been through here" Daryl pointed at some faint tracks

I looked to where he was pointing, but I couldn't really tell either way. "How can you tell its not a walker?"

"Walker tracks are uneven, like they don know how ta walk properly. These ones is perfect, looks like they was tryin' to sneak up on somethin' "

"oh, I see what you mean" Hardly, but if he says so

We spent the day following the trail hoping it would materialize into some of our people but by the end of the day the tracks led into a river and were untraceable from there.

"Damn it" Muttered Daryl "We'll camp here I guess"

The good news is we hadn't seen a walker all day, and having a body of water on one side gave the site a good measure of security. There was still quite a bit of light out so I decided I would take a swim in the river to wash off. I hadn't cleaned up in weeks and now having the river beside me I was feeling pretty ripe.

"Daryl, I'm just going to go down river a bit and wash up. You going to be alright without me?"

"Hmph" Daryl snorts. Has that a hint of a smirk on his face? Hard to tell, that man keeps his emotions in tight check.