Remember Me (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter Seventy-Five: We Ain't Them

"From a friend."

Confusion switched between both me and Daryl as we read the note. My eyes drifted to the water bottles on the ground and I felt my throat become more dry than it had ever been. We were all thirsty, but we knew better than to drink this. All I could think about was Negan as I ran my fingers over the paper. My mind told me the water was poisoned or something along the lines of that.
"What else are we gonna do?" Tara asked.

"Not this," Rick replied rather quickly. "We don't know who left it."
"It's a trap," I said, agreeing with Rick. Everybody looked at me confused when they heard words leave my body. They all assumed I would be silent forever. Hell, I did too.
"If that's a trap, we already happen to be in it," Eugene replied, letting his thirst get the best of him. I shot him a look of disapproval. Nobody was going to drink that water. "But I, for one, would like to think it is indeed from a friend."

"What if it isn't? They put something in it?" Carol asked, siding with the ones who were thinking straight. She was right. People were trying to eliminate others left and right. We couldn't afford trust anymore.
My eyes went back to Eugene as we all watched him pick up a bottle.
"Eugene," Rosita said urgently.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Tara asked as she watched him pick up the bottle. I wanted to kick it out of his hand, but I didn't want to come off as an asshole.
"Quality assurance," Eugene replied as he opened the bottle. As I began approaching him, Abraham got in my way. I silently thanked the gods as Abraham smacked the bottle out of his hand. Eugene looked very disappointed, but we were just trying to save his life. I didn't want to see anymore of my people die.

"We can't," Rick said with authority as Abraham returned to his original spot. I felt sorry for Eugene, but Abraham was just trying to protect him. I didn't blame him for that. I would've done the same thing.
I jumped as I heard thunder rumbling in the distance. I had heard it a few times that day, but it was getting closer and louder. We all stared at the sky for a few moments before water began hitting us.

I was shocked to say the least. I stared at the ground as the rain began pouring down on us. I heard laughter, joy, relief. I heard so much happiness, but I just wasn't very happy. I couldn't shake the image of Beth standing in front of me out of my head.
Rosita and Tara laid on the ground with complete joy. They were taking in every moment of this. I could only feel pure joy around me. It just wasn't changing how I felt.

That's when I realized I wasn't alone. Sasha, Maggie, and Daryl were also sharing the same feeling as I was. None of them had happy looks. None of them were having fun. They felt the same nagging emptiness that I did.
"I'm sorry, my Lord," Gabriel said with sorrow as he stared to the skies.

"Everybody get the bags. Anything you can find," Rick spoke up as he ran to where the bags sat. "Come on."
I snapped out of my own head and grabbed some of the water bottles that sat on the ground. I began pouring out the tainted water and setting them up on the ground. I was certain rain water was better than whatever "a friend" had left for us.
"Let's keep moving," Rick shouted as the thunder became unbearably loud. I looked in the distance and watched as dark clouds approached us. This wasn't a rain shower. This was a thunderstorm.

"There's a barn," Daryl shouted back.
I recalled the small building that sat where Daryl and I reunited. I assumed that's the barn he was talking about.

"Where?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sat around the warm fire and tried to hide my fear of the weather outside. I had been scared of bad weather since I was a child, but I didn't know it would follow me after the world ended. I thought it would be long gone by now.
Daryl began breaking up some sticks in an attempt to make the fire stronger.
"I'll try," Glenn offered as he reached for some sticks.

"No, too wet," Daryl said dismissively. Glenn sighed as he realized you can't help Daryl with anything. I realized that a very long time ago. My eyes drifted to Carl who was sleeping soundly. I looked over Judith in his arms and smiled slightly. I was happy knowing that he was going to watch over her no matter what. She would always have her brother there to protect her.

"He's gonna be okay," Carol said, drawing our attention. "He bounces back more than any of us do."
I looked at Carl one last time as she spoke. She was right. He was able to recover quicker than any of us could. He had been through so much. I admired him more than he would ever know.
" I used to feel sorry for kids that have to grow up now. In this. But I think I got it wrong. Growing up is getting used to the world. This is easier for them," Rick said as he looked away from Carl. I glanced over to Daryl for a moment when he said this. Daryl didn't look back.

"This isn't the world," Michonne said in disagreement. "This isn't it."
"It might be," Glenn replied. "It might."
"It is," I said in a stern voice. I didn't like people sugarcoating how the world was. We weren't going to save it and we weren't going to put it back together. This was life now.

"That's giving up," Michonne said, looking at Glenn. Nobody wanted to address me. They knew I had every reason to call the world evil. They didn't know the half of it.
"It's reality," Glenn replied, shutting her up. Glenn was one of the only realistic people we had left. Maybe he was the only one we had left.
" Until we see otherwise, this is what we have to live with," Rick said as he took a pause. Thunder rumbled above us and I shivered at the sound of it. It was storming so badly. The fear of a tornado coming was going to consume me. I felt Daryl's hand touch the small of my back, comforting me. I began to calm down a little bit knowing that he was next to me.

" When I was a kid... I asked my grandpa once if he ever killed any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. He said that was grown-up stuff," Rick said as he stared down at the ground. I slowly looked back up at him to listen to his story. I knew it would have a good point in there somewhere. " So... so I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him. But he got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped in to enemy territory."

I looked over at Carol for a moment. She was already looking at me with concern on her face. She could sense that I was very uncomfortable. It wasn't just the storm causing this. It was the constant image of the Wolves in my mind. The constant images of Beth.

"Every day he woke up and told himself, rest in peace. Now get up and go to war. And then after a few years of pretending he was dead... he made it out alive," Rick continued, making eye contact with each of us. "That's the trick of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then, we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves... that we are the walking dead."
I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked over at him. Did he just tell us that we were them? I wanted to slap him, but I didn't. I would understand one day exactly what he meant.

"We ain't them," Daryl replied as he began breaking up sticks.

"We're not them," Rick agreed. "Hey. We're not."

They shared a gaze for a moment before Daryl broke it. He grabbed my hand and began tugging me away with him. Away from all of the others.

"We ain't them."