Remember Me (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter Three: Otis

"Blessed be God, father of our Lord, Jesus Christ."
I heard my father's voice speak out, but I didn't look at him. All I could look at was the small hole in the ground that contained Otis. All I could feel was Beth's hand laced with mine. Otis was a good man. He taught me so much as a younger child and I simply couldn't believe that he was gone. Shane claimed that Otis sacrificed himself to save Carl. Part of me believed that statement, part of me didn't. Carl's accident was his fault, but Otis wasn't the type to simply go down like that.
He loved Patricia, he loved his family. He wouldn't give all of that up for something like this. I knew that something was fishy, but I was too nice of a person to say something to Shane or anybody else.

"Praise be to Him for the gift of brother Otis."
I allowed tears to fall from my eyes as I felt Beth's hand run through my hair. She always comforted me no matter what. That's what sisters were for. I would be lost in this world without her. Beth was my other half and nothing would change that.
I blinked tears back and I allowed my eyes to meet the gaze of a man. He was the one that had the bow, I knew that much. We stared at each other for a few moments before I went back to looking at Otis's grave. Tears continued to pour as I looked back at the man. He was still staring at me. This made me uneasy, but I didn't care. He probably assumed Beth and I were a lesbian couple due to our hand holding.

"Shane, will you speak for Otis?" my dad asked after a few moments. My eyes moved to Shane who quickly looked uneasy. That's when I knew that something was up with him. He shaved his head and now he didn't even want to speak for Otis.
"I'm no good at it..sorry."

"Please," Patricia spoke up. My eyes then moved to her. "You were the last one with him. You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning," Patricia begged quietly. Maggie held her close, comforting her.
Shane looked down and began his story. Or, his lie. "We were almost done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then, it was pretty bad. 'We've got to save the boy.' See, that's what he said."

I felt more tears welling up inside of me, but I didn't want them to visit just yet. If his story was true, Otis was a hero. If it was true, Otis died saving this little boy's life. None of us could change what happened, but we could certainly honor him.
"He saved us both. If death had meaning, his did," Shane continued. Tears streamed down Patricia's face as she nodded, "Thank you."

I felt someone watching me and my eyes met with the man again. He watched me intently and I stared back at him. He didn't smile or break the gaze, he just simply stared back. I was grateful when Beth touched my arm and brought me back to reality.
"Let's go have some tea. I think we could both use a break from this," she said, leading me back to the house. I wiped a tear away and nodded as we both began marching back inside. I looked back at the man. He gave me one last look before walking away with Rick. I didn't know him. Hell, I didn't even know his name...but it was like she both shared this connection. Like we both shared this deep sorrow.

Beth and I arrived in the kitchen and my eyes fell upon a man sitting at the table. I didn't know him either. I didn't know any of these strange people here. I saw a bandage wrapped neatly around his arm and he looked rather weak. I didn't know if daddy had fixed him up or not. I immediately went into my room and cried as Maggie held me when I arrived home with Shane. I allowed daddy to wrap my ankle, but after that I lost it.

"Hello," I said sitting at the table. The man looked over at me as Beth put on some tea.
"Hi there. I'm T-Dog," he said putting his hand out. Oh, great. He was kind. My worst fear was one of the people here being rude or unkind to one of us. I smiled at him and met his hand. "Elizabeth. Feel free to call me Liz."

We shook hands and I got up to help Beth with the tea. She grabbed hers and I grabbed two, placing one in front of the man known as T-Dog. He smiled gratefully up at me, "Thank you, sweetheart."
"Don't mention it. I'm sure you could use it," I said, sitting down next to Beth. I acknowledged his arm and curiosity overcame me. "What happened to your arm?"

He lifted it up and observed it with a disgusted look on his face. "Oh, this old thing? Cut it while we were hiding from some walkers. Got blood poisoning. Your old man saved my life," he took a sip of his tea. "So did Daryl. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here right now."

I cocked my head at the name Daryl. The only names I had gotten so far were his, Rick's, and Shane's. The rest were strangers to me.
He caught on to my clueless look and explained. "Daryl is the tough lookin' one. He has the motorcycle. The crossbow and everything. That is Daryl. Let me tell you, he's a tough son of a bitch." So that was the guy that I had a staring contest with.
I smiled at him and took a sip of my tea.

"I only know three names. Rick, you, and Shane. Would you mind giving us an explanation of the rest if you can? I hate not knowing names."

T-Dog smiled a wide smile at me and nodded. I liked this man. He was very kind.
"We have Andrea. She's got the curly blond hair, real pretty. Glenn is the one that wears the baseball cap all of the time. You've met Carl, that's Rick's son. Lori is Rick's wife. She's got dark hair, real bossy and such," he took another sip of his tea. "Carol has short grey hair. She recently lost her daughter, we've been searching for her. Dale is the old man. Ignore him, he got his opinions now. And then there's Sophia. She's just...gone."

I tried to remember everything he said. There were a lot of people to remember.
"And if you ever hear Merle mentioned, that's Daryl's brother...we don't know where he is."
Merle? That was a strange name.
"And are you two sisters?" T-Dog asked.

Beth smiled and sipped on her tea, letting me answer the question. "We're twins, actually."
He almost choked on his tea as he looked between both of us. I could see how he could be confused. As I said before, we didn't look like twins.

"You got me. I can't tell. The only thing similar is those big blue eyes. You're seriously twins?"
"We aren't identical twins. But yeah, we're twins. I am eight minutes older than her," I replied with a smile.
T-Dog shook his head and laughed. I finished my tea and excused myself from the table. I wanted to be alone.
I walked outside and sat down on the porch, leaning my head on my hand. The memory of Otis got to me. Something didn't add up, but I didn't know what. My eyes drifted to Daryl staring at me again. I ignored it.
I had bigger things to worry about.