Barely Alive // TWD // Daryl Dixon

Chapter 28 -- Starving

"Every long separation is a test:

A test to see how powerful or how weak the will of reuniting is!"

– Mehmet Murat ildan

The original plan was going through the woods until the next town or at least another neighbourhood far from the group we ran into in the house but the plans changed. We found some kind of sign that said 'Terminus, sanctuary for all'. Or some shit like that, so now we had gone further into the woods and more east than the place we originally wanted to go, so that meant a few more days in these endless woods. We had been here for around five more days than planned and still we had a long way to go, I was really being a bitch about it, complaining all the damn time but nobody even asked for my opinion about this Terminus thing.

Personally, I didn't think such place existed and if it ever did then I doubt it's still up. Michonne, Rick and Carl wanted to see what the whole thing was so it was three against one. They didn't ask if I wanted to go or not. I learnt some Spanish in High School and the word Terminus reminded me of the word 'terminar' which means to end, and somehow that didn't really give me a good feeling about the place.

I tried to reason with them but they said it was worth a shot, they said maybe the others had headed that way, Rick even tempted me by saying that Daryl could be there, and he could or he could not, every single possibility could be true... or not, so without a good enough argument, we ended up like before and we continued walking down the railroad tracks.

At the moment Rick was on the lead, I was a few steps behind him and Carl and Michonne were in the back, quite far from us. Both of them were walking on the rails, trying hard not to fall, as always they had a bet on it. I would have joined them if there was a third rail and if I weren't in such a bad mood.

"I think we got about a day's worth of water left," I heard Rick saying to all of us, he didn't know Michonne and Carl were too far to hear him and I barely could. "We're lucky it's cooled off a little bit, but..."

He stopped mid-sentence, like he realized he wasn't being followed anymore. He turned around and first his gaze landed on me, then on the pair behind me.

"Don't mind them," I told him.

"What are you doing?" he asked anyway.

"Winning a bet," Carl replied.

"In your dreams!" Michonne exclaimed.

"I'm still on," Carl told her and at that instant he almost fell, making Michonne laugh.

"You spoke too soon, wise guy."

"This might go on a while. Maybe we can speed this up," Rick said, being the spoiler old man he is. I rolled my eyes at him but said nothing. I just watched him walk to Michonne and Carl while I stayed on my spot.

"Yeah, you're right," Michonne muttered. "Shouldn't be fooling around. We should probably – Carl!" Michonne yelled the last part and tried to scare Carl so he would fall but the boy didn't even react, and Michonne fell instead but I was wondering if she fell on purpose, knowing Rick wanted to go.

"I win," Carl chanted proudly to Michonne and then extended his open hand to Michonne. "Pay up."

Michonne didn't look so happy as she reached for her backpack, opened it and took out two chocolate bars, if I had known the prize I would have probably joined the bet.

"Is that really the last Big Cat?" I heard Carl asking Michonne. Carl hesitated for a while but then made his choice and went to pick the chocolate with the brown wrapper.

"Oh, come on!" Michonne whined, obviously wanted that chocolate as well.

"Hey, but you said winner's choice."