Norman Reedus Imagines

Your's (Daryl)

CREDIT TO: https://reedus-dixon-fanfics.tumblr.com

"Baby, come on," You held your hand out for your son that was lagging behind you and tried to give him your best reassuring smile. That was hard to do, though. Giving yourself reassurance was hard enough, but your eight year old son? He was becoming colder, something that had to be guaranteed with the zombie apocalypse.. Living a life that was barely considered surviving, having to kill and watch things be killed, fighting for food (if you could even find any), and constantly running.

He ignored you, still looking off into the forest as he walked, one hand resting on the sheath connected to his side that held his knife. You refused to give him a gun. Not just because you only had one, but also because he is eight. You barely even know how to work the heavy piece of metal in your hands, so you sure as hell aren't going to let your son try. Not without proper training. "Ben. We've got to hurry, it's getting dark," you stopped to say to your son who was acting like he was taking a stroll in the park, ignoring you. He doesn't talk much anymore, barely has since the outbreak started, but lately he had been worse. "Ben, baby, come on," you tried again, shifting the backpack on your back, bending to grab his hand, but he snatched his away, giving you a cold look. It broke your heart, but you didn't do anything. You weren't surprised and know exactly why he is acting this way. He had watched you kill a zombie the other day. When you continuously stabbed it in the head.

You did your best to keep him away from the skin eaters, and actually managed to keep him from seeing one killed or having to see one at all, really. All you did was run and hide, so it wasn't that hard, until the other day. One completely snuck up on you and it was a reflex you didn't know you had to stab it, but were glad. If it had gotten ahold of Ben.. Or if it had bit you, leaving him all alone..
You had that thought in you head when you killed it and ended up going a little bit overboard with stabbing it. You couldn't handle the idea of your son getting hurt and it drove you crazy. But now your son is afraid of you.

And since then, Ben has been worse then usual. Cold, angry, quiet.. Scared.

With a accepting sigh, you straightened back out and kept walking, slowing yourself a little bit to make sure Ben was right near you. Close enough to protect.
Walking on in silence for a while, you noticed the sun was starting to set. You pulled out the map in the back of your pocket and checked where you were, knowing you should be at the old building you circled on the map. Ben and you have been going house to house, store to store, building to building, staying as long as you could at one place before moving to the next.
The map showed that at least half a mile ahead was an old neighborhood that you could only hope was safe to stay at least for the night.
You put the map back in your pocket, and glanced to Ben, watching as he still looked off into the forest. You wondered what was going on inside of his head. Or if he would ever warm up to you again.. You wondered if he could beat this world.. If your baby boy could survive, without losing himself. You even started to wonder about his dad when you saw his dirty blonde hair sweep over his eyes that were shining a beautiful blue. A frown grew on your face, remembering his father, but you didn't have another second to think about it when growls were echoing out into the air.

Frantically, you spun around, pulling Ben behind you and spotting the horde coming behind you and your son. Too many to take on. "Run!" You called, this time pushing Ben in front of you. Luckily he listened, taking off into the forest with you following closely behind. "Mom?!" He frantically cried, trying to look behind his shoulder.

"I'm right here, baby!" You panted. "Run! Keep going!"

The groans were getting louder and you could tell they were getting closer. You got winded, they didn't. So, gripping your gun tightly in your two hands, you slowed and turned to face them, releasing shots. You picked off the closest three, watching them fall and slow the others. "Mom!" This time Ben was calling for you to hurry. You didn't hesitate to spin back around and run again, catching up with him. You ran and ran, but you could tell Ben couldn't go for much longer. You were running out of bullets and the groans behind you didn't stop. "Ben! Over there!" You breathed out, relieved as you saw the neighborhood in the clearing of the woods. And as far as you could tell, no other dead freaks were there besides the ones behind you.