Barely Alive // TWD // Daryl Dixon

Chapter 25 -- Last Man Standing

"She taught me that life goes on, and that I had a choice.

To lament what I no longer had or be grateful for what remained."

- Louise Penny, A Rule Against Murder

Daryl's POV

I pushed the trunk open after we were made to hide in a random car's trunk because a huge herd was following us last night.

Once we were out, we looked inside the car for anything we could use, including broken glass, the rear-view mirrors, and anything that could be tied so whenever a walker passed by it would make noise to alert us.

When I was sure we had grabbed everything useful from there, I put the plastic bag over my shoulder and started to walk down the road. Beth only silently followed me, like she had done for the last couple of days.

Some miles away I decided to get back into the woods, we had more cover there, from both, walkers and other people. We didn't want to bump into the wrong kind of people.

As we walked further I finally saw a squirrel, I shot an arrow at it but unfortunately I missed, thing that doesn't happen often. Upset with myself, I went to grab my arrow from the tree, when I did I noticed it was broken, great, just what we needed.

I kept the spike of the arrow and threw the rest before I walked back to our 'camp'. Beth was making a fire, using the mirror to light the wood and then she tied a rope with the things from the car around the place.

I spotted a snake not far from there, so I slowly followed it, it was a rattlesnake, so it was poisonous. I needed to be careful. With the help of a stick, I stopped it from moving its head and quickly stabbed it. I skinned the animal and with the help of the fire Beth made, I cooked it, otherwise I would have eaten it raw, I was starving.

Beth hesitantly ate the piece I gave her, like if she wasn't too keen about eating a snake but I couldn't care less, I had eaten worse things.

"What about the poison?" she asked. "Won't it... won't anything happen to us?"

"No."

I continued to eat my piece of snake, this was the first piece of meat I had had in around two weeks and I needed it. I had only eaten crap lately and only small amounts of it. I was seriously starving and losing strength.

"I need a drink," she said suddenly. I only threw a bottle of water in her direction without even looking at her, for all I knew I could have hit it with the bottle but right now I just didn't care about anything. "No, I mean a real drink, as in alcohol. I've never had one. 'Cause of my dad. But he's not exactly around anymore, so..." She made a little pause when she noticed I wasn't even looking at her but then she continued. "I thought we could go find some."

Beth looked at me, waiting for me to say something to her but I didn't. I ignored her completely, like if she wasn't even talking to me. I knew I was being a jerk but I couldn't deal with her bullshit right now. Beth stood up and awkwardly walked in front of me, she grabbed the knife and walked away. I didn't even look up, maybe she expected me to go after her like the other times but I wasn't doing that now, I wasn't her babysitter. We had just set this camp and now she wanted to leave? Who gets this girl?

I was enjoying my snake when I heard snarling, I wanted to ignore it and keep eating. I had told myself to not go after Beth like if I was a mother going after her spoiled little toddler, but I couldn't help it. I stood up with a sigh out of annoyance, grabbed my crossbow and went the direction Beth went.

I found the stubborn girl hiding behind a tree, watching as a walker went the other way. I was ready to shoot it just in case but once it walked away, I lowered my crossbow. She turned around and slightly jumped and gasped when she saw me but she calmed down when she saw it was only me. I glared at her before I turned around and walked back to camp, except she didn't know that.