These Awkward Moments

Chapter 2 Supply Run

Daryl's POV
We started out before dawn to go on a supply run to look for the things on the new doc's list. Rick sent Roe with me and Aaron. I reckon he was giving us a chance to test out the new guy and make sure he knew his shit. The doc had some ideas about places that they passed on their way into the Kingdom that looked like they hadn't been looted yet. It would be a long trip, and we planned on being gone a couple days.

We drove about 2 hours south of the Kingdom before we got blocked by a small herd of walkers.

I looked at Roe "Ya up for this?"

He smiled a big goofy grin and said "Always".

We all got out of the truck. I put a bolt through the head of the first walker to head towards us and turned to see Roe swing his machete through the head of one coming from the ditch on the side of the road. Aaron handled one at the front of the truck and by this time Roe had sliced through two more stinkers. Roe took out three walkers that came out of the brush as Aaron and I cleared the road. Roe was smiling like a fool and hadn't even broke a sweat. He looked like he was having a blast, and kinda reminded me of Abraham and how he used to get off on this kinda action.

"What?"

I shook my head. "Just rememberin' somebody a lot like you."

Aaron nodded at me and flashed a sad grin. We got back in the truck and headed down the road.

We drove most of the day, stopping a couple of times to try to siphon gasoline from cars along the way, and to clear walkers off the road. Aaron and Roe kept up a pretty constant flow of conversation. Aaron got Roe to talking about playing football in high school and college before he blew out his knee and lost his scholarship. He went to work in his daddy's auto shop after that. Roe also managed to get Aaron talking a bit about life before.

Roe tried to ask me about life before the world went to shit, but I just shrugged. "Life was just life. Nuthin' special."

By the time we got close to where we were headed, it was almost dark. We decided to make camp for the night and start again in the morning. We pulled the truck to the side of the road and secured a small area around the truck with barbed wire and tin cans. We didn't bother with a campfire because the nights were warm enough, and we brought food that wouldn't need to be cooked. Aaron got three small sacks of venison pemmican that was mixed with dried blueberries and crushed walnuts, and handed one to each of us. Roe reached in his sack, took out a pinch, and placed it in his mouth.

He chewed for a minute and smiled, "Wow! This stuff is really good!"

Aaron nodded, "Yes, and it's very nutrient dense too. You don't have to eat a lot of it to get what you need." He responded as he placed a pinch in his own mouth. "Daryl taught us how to make it."

Roe nodded his head and looked at me with new respect. I finished eating my fill and asked, "Who wants first watch?"

Aaron volunteered and I settled down on the blankets in the bed of the truck to try to rest for a while. "Wake me up in a couple hours for my watch." We made it through the night without any more encounters with walkers.

The next morning we were up with the sun. We pulled into a small town about 30 minutes later and followed the lady doc's directions. The whole town looked untouched. As we were driving through town, Roe spotted a small car sales lot that had some cars still parked in it. He suggested we check it out and see if we could get a bigger truck with a full tank to drive home in. There were only a couple walkers roaming the street here, so we pulled over to see what we could find. We broke the lock on the door of the sales office, and found the cabinet with keys. We found two keys that were clearly marked for pick-up trucks. The first one was low on gasoline when we started the engine.