Knife Edge [Daryl Dixon]

Chapter Five - Lived Today (2/2)

    Daryl drove into Arcola, Sarah beside him in the passenger seat checking the Glock he brought her from the armory. Two knives and a gun. Whether she was ready to go out or not, she was beginning to look pretty busy. 

He slowed to navigate three cars that were snarled up on an intersection, a walker thumped hollowly at them through a smeared window as they drove past. Sarah slid the gun into the holster on her belt, her brow lowering as she trailed it with her eyes but Daryl was more interested in finding somewhere relatively safe to stop. 

The area was filled with detached houses, a mix of brick and wooden sidings, but every garden was too densely overgrown for his liking. He wanted a street where he could see what was coming so they could hightail it out of there if need be.

After circling the streets, he finally chose a deserted street of two-story wooden houses and pulled over, 'This'll do.' 

Sarah peered out of the window, then reached for the door handle, but he had some things he needed to make clear before they got out of the car. This was her first time out with him. She was not dying today. 

He put a hand on her shoulder and held her back, telling her straight, 'When we're out, you do as I say. And if I say you run, you run. Got that?'

She flopped back into her seat, 'What d'you mean?'

He gave her a sour look. If she needed it spelling out, he was only too happy to oblige, 'It means if I say you run, you run. No matter what's happenin'.'

Her mouth dropped open and she spluttered as if he had insulted her, 'What? And leave you?'

Taking his hand from her shoulder, he pointed firmly down the road, 'That's the deal. You don't like it, we go back to Alexandria right now.' 

He slid his tongue along his teeth and waited. While he could read the answer she wanted to give in the way she was breathing, in her flat bright eyes, they weren't going anywhere until she agreed. 

It was only when he went to start the car that she backed down, jumping in with, 'Right, okay. I got it. Jeez.'

     Sarah got out of the car and cast a quick scowl at Daryl's back while he dropped his crossbow into place. He risked his life to save her. Did he honestly think she would run off and leave him in the shit if it came to it? Was that the kind of person he thought she was?

He tipped his head towards the nearest house, a once cream wooden house with a long porch along the front, 'That one.' 

She nodded, hiding how antsy and uncomfortable she felt now. Not wanting Daryl to see he had gotten under her skin.

It was only when she drew one of her knives that she began to calm down. She was training again, and already her knives felt lighter and faster in her hands as her muscles remembered this was what she knew.

Standing on the portico, next to clay pots filled with brown dead stumps, she watched their backs while Daryl knocked on the door. When nothing answered, he inserted his knife between the frame and the door. 

Before he forced it, he fixed an eye on her, 'You remember what I said?'

She checked her grip, 'I remember.'

The front door opened straight into a small living room lined with busy wallpaper, with a door to the kitchen at the back, and stairs to the upper level in the far corner. Cobwebs tickled her face and she swiped them away. 

Finding nothing but bags of trash in the corner of the tidy but dusty kitchen, Daryl went to the stairs. 

As she followed him up, he held his knife at the ready straining to see the landing as it came in sight. The way he found a good footing on every step, his body taut and alert, calmed her further.