I Need You (Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

Chapter 42

Daryl-

I stuffed the picture of Ruth back into my pocket, as I tossed my cigarette to the ground. I stood up and stomped it out, sniffed, and continued to exam the ground, looking for foot prints, or tracks. Of course if she started to wear shoes again, this would be harder. I few miles back I found a barefoot print, it was printed into the mud, then a few prints into the dry dirt. I was hoping I was getting close, and I was hoping I wasn't just following a Walker.

"Daryl." Carl's voice grained through my radio.

"Yeah." I grumbled back.

"Any sign of her?"  He asked.

"Nah, a few prints miles back, but nothin'."

"Okay, just checking in, good luck, I'll talk to you tomorrow." Carl spoke.

"Alright." I tossed my radio back into my bag, and continued in the direction the foot prints were going.

I then noticed a very good climbing tree, Ruth had an eye for good trees, anything I saw that looked climbable worked for me. It had a large perch, a good spot to sleep. I climbed up into it, found an empty can, and blood, that was a good sign, kind of. I hopped down, and looked around the tree for any foot prints or slide marks, anything. I found toe prints, like maybe she was tiptoeing; several actually, giving me a good trail to follow. I'll never understand why Ruth left, I knew the way she felt, but to let those feelings cloud your mind. I don't know, she was my constant in this world, she kept me sane, even if she did drive me crazy at times. Something she said to me once,' I may hate you more, but I'll never love you less'. That always brought a smile to my face thinking about it, she always had clever sayings, quotes.

Walker. I stabbed it in the head and shoved it away, continuing like nothing happened. I searched all of Virginia for her, even with the threat of the Saviors out here, I didn't care, I wanted to find her. I searched high and low for about a month, then I had to give up hope, and help prepare for an attack from the Saviors. Any chance I got to go look for her I did, and that's what I was doing now. It had been a little over six months since she left, and everyday made it harder and harder to hold on to hoping she would come back, or that she was okay.

I should probably find a place to sleep tonight, before it gets dark. I found a decent spot, it was a big rock, with a hollowed out spot in the front, almost like a cave. I got several thick branches, and stuck them into the ground around my small cave. I weaved rope around the sticks, making a little barricade from the dead. I finally sat back relaxing into the cave. I leaned back against my pack, and pulled out my knife, stabbing it into the ground over and over again. Man, this girl knew how to make me crazy. I pulled out the picture I had of her, I took it from the envelope of pictures she had. She seemed to hate the picture, but I liked it, I liked the content look on her face. I held my knife and picture in my hand, relaxing into the shape of my pack, crossing my arms, continuing to look at the picture of her.

"Why did you leave me?" I whispered toward the picture.

'I didn't want to drag you down anymore.' She quietly spoke back. I stuffed the picture back into my pocket, man, I was losing it. I guess it's just part of missing someone, and I did miss her a lot, basically like part of me was missing.

What had me, worried? I guess, was would she even come back with me if I did find her, would she listen to what I had to say? She was very unpredictable these days, I mean there were moments she would listen, when she would cooperate, but then there were moments I couldn't even get her to look at me. I hoped when she saw me, she would be happy to see me, and be willing to come back. I would go out of the Kingdom days at a time to go looking for her, and also to keep an eye out for the Saviors. They were out here somewhere waiting for their moment. I wanted to find Ruth before it was too late, we could really use her, she was a good shot, a good tracker, a good.. killer. She was very much like me, chose not to think about the kill that much, did what had to be done, but she was also hot headed, something I was still working out of. I don't know if she would ever grow out of it, I mean she guessed she was close to or was 30 by now, she was 22 when this started. It was hard to grow up, or be your age, when you didn't quite know what month or year it was. Let me just say, if she was 30 she looked amazing for her age. I'm getting off track here, again I just missed her; everything about her, her eyes, freckles, the smell of her hair, her natural scent, her smooth skin that was decorated with scars, her curves, her toned body. Stop it, focus, you just need to find her first you can focus on, all of that, later.

When I wasn't looking for Ruth, Rick had me stationed outside of Alexandria, keeping an eye on it, making sure no one was trying to use it. I shared that position with Dwight, so right now he was watching Alexandria. If neither of us could watch, Sasha would take the post. I hated sitting there watching that destroyed place, waiting for something to happen. A few weeks after losing Alexandria we had gone back and collected whatever was left over. I didn't like going back, it only made me think of her, all the things we had done, all the joy, the happiness. It made me want to spit every time I thought about it. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the memories, but now that she left, now that she was gone; I wasn't sure what to think about the memories. I would head back tomorrow to my shift at Alexandria, I hated it but, I needed to do something, looking for Ruth was driving me mad.