An Arrow Dipped in Ink

Chapter 6

Everyone back at camp was up and starting their day. Lori was hanging clothes on a line when Rick woke up. Shane pulled up in his jeep and gave everyone water. Just as Rick was starting to talk to Lori about leaving Merle behind there was a scream coming from the woods. Everyone ran to see what was wrong. Some of the guys grabbed shovel and guns. Lori could hear Carl calling for her. Everyone took off into the woods. Lori grabbed Carl and Sophia and took them off to the side. The guys were pointed into the direction of a walker that was chewing on a deer. The deer had three arrows stuck in it. The walker was too busy eating to hear the guys behind him. He looked over his shoulder and noticed that there was fresh meat waiting for him. It went after Rick and he whacked it in the head with a stick. Everyone took turns hitting it until it finally went down. Dale took an ax and with one powerful swing he chopped its head clean off.

“They never come this far up the mountain,” said Dale.

Jim added, “They're running out of food in the city.”

There was a snap of a stick. Everyone expected to see another walker come out of the woods but got a surprise when they saw Daryl. He got a scare as well when he saw that Shane had a gun pointed a him. “Son of a bitch! Tha's my deer!”

Rayne came out of the woods to find everyone standing around staring at her. “Hey! I shot it first so that's MY deer.”

Daryl looked over at her and narrowed his eyes and smirked at her for a second. Long enough for her and only her to notice.

“Loo' at it. All gnawed on by this...filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy fuckin' bastard!” He kicked it with every word. Absolutely pissed off that he didn't get to his deer first.

Dale looked at him, “Calm down son.”

Daryl got up in Dale's face, “Wha' do you know 'bout it old man. Why don't you take tha' stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'. Been tracking this fuckin' deer fir miles.”

Rayne cleared her throat and putting her hands on her hips, “Don't you mean WE have been tracking that fucking thing for miles. I pull my weight around here too Dixon.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was gonna cook us up some venison. Wha' do you think? Think we can cut around tha' chewed up part righ' there?” Daryl asked Shane.

Shane spoke up, “I wouldn't risk that.”

“Tha's a damn shame. Well, we got us some squirrel. 'bout a dozen so that will have to do”

Suddenly the head of the walker that Dale hacked off came back to life. Daryl took one look at it and said, “Come on people wha' da hell!” He lifted his crossbow and shot it through the eye. He retrieved his arrow from it after it was good and dead. “It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothin'.”

Daryl started to head back toward camp. Rayne followed right behind him looking at the new guy as she passed by. She caught up with him and walked beside him. He looked down at her and gave her a small but quick smile. Daryl's smiles weren’t like how other people smiled. The corner of his cheek would move but that was enough for Rayne to know what he was doing. Daryl called for Merle as he got closer to the RV. He called him again but still Merle didn't answer. Rayne looked around and saw that the expression on everyone's faces were changing.

Shane came up to Daryl and said, “Daryl, just slow up a bit I need to talk to ya.”

“Bout wha'?” he asked.

“Bout Merle. There was a...uh a problem in Atlanta.”

The entire camp fell silent. Daryl looked over at everyone and Rayne could see him putting up his guard again. She looked at him and she could see the sadness in his face.