The next morning, I heard a loud knock on my door. I woke up groggy and slid a pair of sweatpants over my bare legs. I trotted down the steps and to the door, looking through the glass window before opening. I was surprised to see who it was.
"Want to go hunting?" He asked quietly. "I miss my crossbow." I laughed slightly and nodded.
"Come inside, let me change and I'll be down soon. Help yourself to the kitchen if you're hungry - it's early." I replied. Quickly, I ran up the stairs to change into a pair of black jeans, oversized black t-shirt, and my boots. I grabbed my knife, wrapped it around my thigh, grabbed my backpack, and headed down the steps. Daryl was on a stool at the kitchen counter, eating an apple from the fruit bowl. "Ready when you are." I said, startling him a bit.
"Damn, you're quiet. You'll be good to hunt with." He smirked. I followed him out my door and to the armory to grab our weapons of choice. He grabbed his crossbow the minute he saw it and I grabbed a silencer and an extra knife. We had plenty of ammunition for the day. "We'll be back by nightfall." He said, reading my mind. Together, we walked to the gates and they opened for us. I gave the ones on watch duty a nod before hearing the gates close behind us. "You get used to eating squirrel three times a day it grows on you." He said out of nowhere.
"Out of all the array of food we have back there, you still want to skin your own squirrel?" I asked.
"Maybe we'll get a deer too. Then it'll be a party." He shrugged. I liked that Daryl talked to me. From what I have heard from Michonne and Rick, he rarely said more than a few words, unless it was Rick. I felt a bit honored that he asked me to hunt with him even if we barely knew each other. This is exactly what I wanted to happen, a good friend.
"Daryl, why did you ask me to hunt with you? I figured you would were the type to do things alone."
"Yesterday, you told me to find my people, so I did. I don't usually confide in a lot but figured we've been through the same things, easy to get along with." He explained.
"Well thank you for trusting me. I want your group to have a future with Alexandria. Hopefully we can start to bring in more groups like you. Our last group was exiled because they tried to take over. That's when they started taking in just lone survivors, like me. But Aaron and Eric saw you guys, knew you've seen it all." I told Daryl.
"Group has been through hell and back for sure, but we stuck together." Suddenly, he got quiet and I was about to ask what was wrong. He moved his arm up in front of me to stop me from walking further. There was a beautiful doe in front of us. I saw Daryl concentrate slightly and load an arrow. Swiftly, he released the arrow and shot her down.
The sun was setting and Daryl and I hauled the doe back to Alexandria. The gates opened for us and we spotted Deanna and Rick near the gates. They looked over at us and smiled.
"We brought dinner!" I exclaimed. We continued to carry the doe to the shop area where the game is skinned and prepared. "Do you want any help?" I asked laying her down on the table.
"I want to do this alone." He said. Not harshly, but I understood. I nodded and left the room, leaving Daryl to attend to his prize. I walked out to the street and was approached by Rick and Deanna.
"You two really helped us out today. Thank you." Deanna said.
"Of course, I enjoyed going out there." I didn't mention that it was my first time out of the gates in months, but I'm sure she knew.
