Starting Over... |Daryl Dixon| |The Walking Dead|

Chapter 9: Breaking the Ice

The first night sleeping in the holding cell was restless and uncomfortable... Well, for me at least. Every one else seemed to be snoozing soundly in their sleeping bags.

I tossed and turned in my spot on the ground next to Tina, who could sleep literally anywhere... I envied that about her. I had always struggled with insomnia, even before the world changed... But when it did change, my sleeping problems got a lot worse.

There was always so much to think about, way too much to worry about, and usually always something that needed to be planned out... So my mind was never at rest. It really was exhausting.

Usually, I thought about my family, and my normal life that was only a little over a year in the past. It seemed like I had fallen asleep in the comfort of loved ones, electricity and hot water, and woken up in this brutal, primative nightmare of survival, stripped of everything I once knew.

On a normal day, the pleasant memories of barbecues, dates to the movies, and even taking tests in my college classes consumed me. No matter how hard I tried to shove them out, they always lingered...

But ever since we had walked into this prison, it had been a little easier to push aside the painful images of my old life, because now something else was persistantly taking their place...

And that was Daryl. As much as I tried to keep him out of my personal memories, there he was around every corner in my mind. I didn't understand it... I had only known this man for the better part of two days, and he had done nothing but put me down, judge me and drive me nuts the entire time.

So, why couldn't I get those steel blue eyes out of my mind...? The best I could do was try to ignore them...

So, I layed quietly on my side, facing the back wall and staring out the window. The sky outside was beginning to show just the slightest gradient of color, from blue to magenta. It was early in the morning... The sun would be rising in maybe two hours or so.

I let out an impatient sigh, closing my eyes and waiting for the relieving *click* of the cell door unlocking.

After another ten or twenty minutes of laying awake and waiting, I heard footsteps walking down the short hallway, accompanied by the soft jingle of keys.

My stomach fluttered in excitement as I listened to whoever it was; most likely Rick, Daryl, or Glenn; slide the key into the lock, and turn it. I hadn't been expecting someone quite this early in the morning, so it was definately a pleasant surprise.

*click*

I stayed still and kept my eyes on the back wall, listening to the footsteps trail over to the left. There was the soft jingling again, and I heard a key slide into a different lock.

*click*

The cell next to ours unlocked, enabling Michonne to move freely about the prison as well.

Michonne was the African American woman I'd seen miraculously slash her way to the gate of the prison just a day before.

I didn't know a lot about her besides her name... I wasn't able to get much more out of her when I'd seen her awake the night before, besides that Rick had offered her the same deal that he had offered my group, and she too was under-going the three day probation period.

She just seemed very angry...

When I heard the footsteps travel away from the cell doors and back down the hall, I sat up, catching the angel wings on the back of Daryl's leather vest as he disappeared around the corner.

It actually surprised me that he even bothered to unlock the doors and let us out at all.

Never the less, I was free from my restless prison. I kicked my sleeping bag off me, already dressed in my white tank top and snug, dark wash skinny jeans. I sat on the cement floor and tugged my brown hiking boots on, lacing them up over my jeans.