My Hunter || D. Dixon (On Hold)

Twenty-Three - A Sign

The rest of the group drove in the next morning. I was never so happy to see that damn RV then when Dale came out and asked if we needed anything. Daryl was the main one that I wanted to see out of all of them. "You good?" He questions, watching me walk almost stably down the stairs to greet the group.

I nod my head, running a hand through my hair. "Gotta be. She's gonna live and that's all I care about." Daryl nods, looking down at his bike before meeting my eyes. "I'm not gonna bother tryin' to fight with anyone, Hell I'm in no shape today to even be out here. Tomorrow, I'm headin' out to look for 'er, takin' a horse. You in?" I question, glancing around as the group starts to set up out front of the house.

Daryl nods his head, kicking the bike stand up. "Yeah," he says and I smile at that, looking around the group.

We put together a service for Otis, deciding that we would do this before talking about finding Sophia. "Shane, why don't you speak for Otis?" Herschel suggests to Shane, who both shaved his head and is dressed up in Otis' clothes.

Shane looked around at the group, as though he was trying to put something together. "I-I'm no good at it so. Sorry." Shane looks down to the ground when Patricia pleads to hear about her husband's death. "We were about done." He starts, looking up at the group. "No more shots of ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limpin', it was bad. Angle swellin' up. We gotta save the girl! See that' what he said. He gave me his backpack, he shoved me ahead. Go on he said. He said, I'll take the rear, I'll cover you. And when I looked back. . ." Shane places a rock on top of the pile we have going. "If it weren't for Otis, I would have never made it out alive."

We all fall silent after that, one by one we departed and started looking over the map of the land. Daryl already set out to start looking, being one of the only ones able to go out and look and know what they're doing. Caleb was inside with Jessica and Carl, keeping an eye on them. One thing that caught my attention was Glenn, who was on the porch with Maggie and a guitar.

Everything about this place screams a new life. That this is the safest that we've been in a long while and that's the truth. This place is worth keeping, even if we have to fight to keep it.

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Nodding, I pat Caleb on the shoulder before walking off to meet up with Daryl. "Be careful," Caleb calls out and I smile, walking to the stable where Daryl picks a horse. He looks up and meets my eyes, saddling the horse of his choice.

I walk up, bow on my back as I pat the horse. "What's the plan?" I question as he gets on the horse, holding his hand out to help me up. I get on the horse so I'm sitting behind him, arms on his sides as we started to ride the horse out.

Daryl glances at me over his shoulder. "Riding up the creek, get a good look, circle around after a while." He turns back towards the woods ahead of us, nearing a part of the creek that we hadn't been to yet. Middle of the creek was a doll, laying in the water. "I got it."

Daryl gets off the horse while I move up, keeping the animal steady while he goes down in the creek. My eyes dart around hand on my python just in case something comes out. "Sophia!" Daryl shouts after picking up the doll. I shout for her as he pockets the doll and walks back to the horse.

I hold my hand out, helping him on now. "Easy girl," I whisper to the horse as we trot through the woods, scanning for any sign of the girl. The horse reels back, spooked by a snake that I draw my knife to kill. The horse lets out a yell, bucking us off and down the side of the hilltop and down into the ravine that we were going along, crashing into the water.

I screw my eyes shut for a moment. "Son of a bitch." I groan, gasping for air at the feeling of the wind being knocked out of me. My clothes are now soaked from the water, I'm bleeding from my knife that now sits in my right thigh. "Daryl?" I question, slowly sitting up on my elbows, digging into the rocks under the bloody water. A few feet away from me Daryl slowly gets up, an arrow in his side. "Shit."