Fight to Survive (Daryl Dixon)

5. Bad day

Chapter Five

 

I woke to a gentle shake to my shoulder. My eyes opened quickly, and my heart rate quickened. My hand went straight to my pocket knife beside me, and in a sudden jolt I turned to face who was touching me.

It was dark, but a dim light was coming from a small latten near the tent entrance. I stared into the face of Daryl. My knife was an inch from his face, he stared at it and frowned. My wide eyes relaxed as I remembered where I was. I had been so deep in my sleep when Daryl had woken me, I had no idea where I was, or what was going on.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. I lowered the knife from Daryl’s face, and shifted awkwardly inside the sleeping bag.

“I’m gonna’ be needin’ my bed back now,” Daryl said. He stared down at me, waiting for me to move. I looked over to where Merle had been sleeping not far from me. He was not there anymore. I assumed he was outside keeping watch now.

“Can’t you just sleep where Merle was sleeping?” I asked, feeling a little annoyed that he had woken me up for this reason.

“I told ya’ I would be needin’ my bed back once I was done.” Daryl grabbed my arm, and gave a rough pull, like he was trying to me pull me out of the bed.

I pulled my arm back from him and glared up at him. “Don’t touch me!” I growled, before throwing back the top cover of the sleeping bag, and crawling out around Daryl. I refused to look at him, as I heard him shuffling into the nice warm sleeping bag. I shivered as cold air hit my bare arms. I stared down at Merle’s sleeping bag. It was very dirty looking, and a bad smell was coming from it. I scrunched up my nose and pushed it to the side. I laid down on the tent floor without a sleeping bag. I hugged myself with my arms to try keep warm. I did not blame Daryl now for not wanting to sleep in Merle’s sleeping bag with how bad it smelt, but he was his brother and he should be used to his smell by now.

I jumped in fright when I felt something fall on top of me. I look to see Daryl poncho sitting on top me scrunched up. Daryl had chucked it to me. “Thanks,” I mumbled without looking at him.

I curled up under Daryl’s poncho, trying to keep warm. I closed my eyes trying to let sleep take over me once again. Unfortunately, I felt wide awake now. I sneaked a peek over to Daryl, to see if he had fallen asleep yet. He was laying on his back under the sleeping bag. His hands were behind his head, and his lips were slightly parted; I could hear his soft breath pass through them, as he stared up at the tent ceiling.

“What?” I heard him grumble. His head turned slightly in my direction, his eyes staring into mine.

“Nothing.” I said rather quickly. I pulled the poncho up over my face, feeling embarrassed that Daryl had noticed me looking over at him.

The bright sun light shone straight in my face. My eyes scrunched up tightly, before finally opening. I looked around me, and noticed I was alone in the tent. I listened carefully, but the only sound I could hear was the slight whistle of the wind blowing through the tree leaves.

I sat up and put Daryl’s poncho to the side. It was a warm day, and I did not feel I needed it just yet. I stepped out of the tent to an empty camp site. I figured the boys were probably out hunting again. My stomach growled at the thought of food. I really hoped they would be back soon, so we could have breakfast.

I made my way over to the edge of the camp where the rope was tied between the trees. I stepped under it and made my way through the woods. I had my knife in my hand ready in case I came across a walker. Luckily there did not seem to be many, if any, walkers out this way. I stepped behind a large tree, pulling my shorts down to my ankles.

I was really annoyed about not having a toilet to do my business in anymore. I tried to save the toilet paper for ‘other business’ so it got tiring squatting down to ‘drip dry’. Boys defiantly have it easier in this department.

I stood up, my shorts still around my ankles. Before I had the chance to pull my pants up someone came running into view from the trees.

I gasped, and quickly pulling my pants up. I stumbled as I did so, and fell face first on the ground. I looked up awkwardly to see if he had seen me. By the wide eyed, shocked look on Daryl’s face he had seen everything, from my pants down, to me falling over.

 My face went red with embarrassment. I really did not even want to get up I felt that embarrassed. Daryl began to walk over to me. He looked down at me and frowned. “Your arm is layin’ in poision ivy. Ya’ might wanna’ go wash that.” With that he walked off, not even bothering to help me up.

“Asshole!” I mumbled angrily. I looked over to my left arm. It was laying over a plant covered in green leaves. I quickly jumped up, taking my arm off it. I did not know if Daryl was being serious about that stuff being poison ivy. I really hoped he was joking, but then Daryl does not seem like the joking type of person.

I ran towards the stream as quickly as I could. As soon as I got there, I dipped my arm straight into the water. I used my other hand to scrub at my arm, to clean off any poison as I possible could. I pulled my arm out of the water. I could see no signs of a rash, or any other symptoms.

I sighed feeling relieved. I stood back up, and headed back for the camp. Daryl and Merle were already cooking up some meat by the time I got back there.

“Did ya wash your arm?” Merle asked me, when I entered the camp.

“What?” I asked, hoping Daryl did not tell him what he had seen.

“Daryl told me ya tripped and fell in some poison Ivy. Ya better go wash that.”

“I already washed it,” I told him, and my eyes wandered over to Daryl who was skinning a squirrel. I knew he had not told Merle what I was doing before I fell over. I knew Merle would probably be teasing me about it right now if he knew.

“What were you doing running through the tree’s like that?” I asked Daryl feeling annoyed. It was his fault after all that caused me to fall over.

“Was chasing a rabbit. Thanks to you, it got away!” Daryl glared up at me.

I grinded my teeth together, but did not say anything back. I sat down away from the boys, and looked over my arm. I could see slight redness appearing over it, and it was starting to feel itchy.

I knew now that Daryl was not lying about it being poison ivy. This is just great! I thought sarcastically to myself. What a bad day this is turning out to be.

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