Savage World •••Daryl Dixon•••

Never Have I Ever

The two sat silently in the woods, still knelt to the ground and curled to each other. It had been nearly an hour since her breakdown over her dead father's corpse, but neither felt the urge to move away from the other.

"You okay there, Asher?" She slowly stirred, her eyes fluttering as she focused on the side of his head.

"Yeah, sorry I got your shirt all wet." He softly chuckled and looked down at the fabric. It still had a great big wet spot on the chest, but it was already starting to dry out at the edges.

"It'll dry up, no problem. You know we're gonna have to get moving again." She nodded. They couldn't stay here much longer, it wasn't safe. The people in camp may be wondering where they were.

"I don't like that man. The one in camp who yelled at you." Daryl chuckled and they pushed to their feet with loud pops in their knees and ankles.

"Yeah me neither, he likes to run his mouth like the rest of 'em." Asher handed his arrow back to him, the blood almost gluing her hands to the shaft.

"That's not what I mean." The Dixon brother stopped walking and turn to face her with a raised brow of concern. "In the quarry, we walked passed him and the other women doing laundry. Some little girl was close by them, helping pack the stuff up to get hung up later. He had the nastiest look on his face when he looked at her."

"He didn't do anythin' did he?" The blonde girl shook her head no.

"No, I'd have castrated him without feeling bad or blinking." Daryl smirked and nodded.

"That's my girl." She softly smiled back as they continued walking towards camp.

"I caught him watchin' us. Carol and I, and I don't think he was there for his wife." The man grew rigid and his steps weighed into angry stamps. Asher had to jog to keep up with his angry strides and they got closer to camp. All murderous thoughts were slammed to a stop when they saw that the group from the run to the city had finally returned- sans Merle.

"Where's Merle?" Daryl's voice broke up the reunion between Lori and Carl with the new guy they seemed to know and everyone got quiet. "I said, where's my brother?"

"He was out of control, I cuffed him to a pipe on the roof, but-" T-Dog interrupted the new guy.

"I dropped the key." He glared at the group, his murderous thoughts expanding to include them all.

"You left my brother up on some roof to die?!" He lurched forward to punch the man, stopped by Shane and the new guy. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"We're going back for him!"

"Merle's dead?" Asher's voice broke their argument, the thin girl standing with her hands curled up to her chest and her periwinkle eyes wide and watery. The new guy looked over at her with sad eyes, she looked so fragile that it seemed the very news of his death would shatter her. His assumptions were shot when she launched at him, bloodstained fingers clawing at his eyes. Daryl whirled around and caught her around the waist, the momentum letting her kick out her foot to connect her heel with his jawline.

"You left him behind!" Shane bent down to help the man to his feet, the whispers naming him as Rick. He waved off Shane and pushed to his feet on his own. Looking over at the angrily muttering and tearing up girl. "You left him behind."

"I'm sorry, but he was going to get us all killed." Asher glared at Rick and turned her head to instead face Daryl's neck. She curled her legs around his waist and moved her arms up around his neck, the man gently wrapping his arms around her back.

"He'll be alright Asher, a handcuff and some walkers won't stop him." Asher nodded in agreement with him.

"I want to go too. I don't want to be here with them." Daryl shook his head no and peeled the girl from him to set her on her feet. "Please?" He quickly knelt down and leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"Someone's gotta look after that little girl, right? If anything goes bad, you find her and you both hide. I will find you, I promise." She nodded and Daryl pushed up to his feet before running his finger down her nose with a kind smirk. "Maybe I'll find ya a good bow while I'm out."

"Then I can beat you at hunting." The Dixon man chuckled and shook his head before the group of men got into cars and vanished. Once he was out of her sight, she felt vulnerable and uneasy. Anyone could come from anywhere and she'd be dead. She whirled in a small circle to find a place to curl up until he returned, but he asked her to watch the little girl. Asher spotted her playing a little way from Carol and Lori with the boy Carl. She hesitantly approached the small group, her eyes cast to the ground and hunched over.

"Hey sweetie, you wanting to come play with Sophia and Carl?" She glanced up and gently nodded to say she did. Carol waved her over and the two kids shuffled a bit to make room for her.

"We're playing Never-Have-I-Ever." Asher tilted her head and her eyebrows lifted in confusion. "Have you never played this game before?"

"Never had the time for them." The girl showed her how to play the game and they started over with all their fingers up. "Asher you first!"

"Okay umm... never have I ever... been to an amusement park." The two kids put down their thumbs to show that they did.

"Okay my turn, never have I ever... shot a walker." None of the kids put their fingers down, the two looking towards Asher in surprise.

"I haven't. Usually it's Merle and Daryl doing the shooting. Anyways it's your turn Sophia." She tapped on her chin in thought.

"Never have I ever... been as scared as I am now." The two women froze at her words, waiting to see how the others would react. Carl kept his fingers up but Asher put her thumb down to say that she had been more scared than now.

"What was scarier than the life we're living now?" Asher looked around the group, sky blue eyes looking more through them than at them.

"The one I had before. The end of the world was the best thing I've had happen to me."