Remember Me (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter Seventy-Eight: 43 Minutes

"When the world was still the world, I worked for an NGO."
I looked over at Aaron as he began talking. Rick watched as the others began exiting the barn. Part of me wanted to go with them, but I wasn't going to do that. I had to stay here with Rick and Judith. He couldn't protect them both if the barn got ambushed. I was the second best with a weapon. Or at least I liked to think that. "Our mission was to deliver medicine and food to the Niger River Delta. Bad people pointed guns in my face every other week."
I looked over at Rick as he continued. I was starting to get tired of his rambling once again. Rick stared out of the door with a blank expression. He didn't give a shit about what Aaron was saying. Neither did I.
"You're not bad people," Aaron stated. "You're not going to kill us. And we're definitely not going to kill you."

Speak for yourself. I ran my finger over my knife. This caused him to gulp loud enough for us to hear. I felt bad making him scared, but it was the only way to keep him in his place.
"Just because we're good people doesn't mean we wont kill you," Rick replied, still staring out of the door. He was right. We had to kill countless people in our time. Being good had nothing to do with it. I would take out anybody if I had to. The rest of us would do the same.

"If the five of them aren't back in an hour.." Rick trailed off. "I'll put a knife in the base of your skull."

Rick wouldn't have to. I would do it if anything happened to our people. I didn't care how nice this guy was. Every enemy we had was nice at one point. That didn't change the fact that they were terrible people.

Rick closed the door after he finished. Aaron seemed pretty thrown off by his words. He obviously didn't know how brutal we could be. "What did you do before this?"
I turned my head back towards Aaron. I wasn't sure if he was addressing me, but his eyes were on me. I guess that confirms who his question was for.
"I was in high school," I answered plainly. School was the one thing I didn't miss. I was glad I had to do without that.

"High school? Wow," Aaron said in shock. "You're still a child."
"Hardly," I replied in a cocky tone. I didn't like being called a child. I was far from anything close to that. The apocalypse makes you grow up faster.

"You can't be older than seventeen or eighteen," Aaron replied.
I didn't know how long the apocalypse had been going on. I assumed two years since the farm. You couldn't keep track of time.

"Something like that," I answered as Rick rushed over to Judith. Her cries filled the air. I could tell that she was hungry just by the sound of it. I couldn't really remember the last time she had something to eat. "You did see the jar of applesauce in my bag, right?"

Rick glanced at Aaron for a moment before continuing to crush up acorns in a small bowl. I wouldn't trust any food this guy had either.
"This isn't a trick," Aaron assured us. "This isn't about trying to make you like me. It's self-preservation. Because if the roamers hear her and come this way, I know I'll be the first to go."

He was right about that. I would do anything to protect Judith. I helped her mother give birth to her. I wasn't going to let anyone or anything harm her for as long as I lived. Rick shushed Judith as he walked over to the applesauce. I wanted to stop him from giving her any.
"Make him eat it first," I suggested. Aaron seemed disgusted by the idea. I knew something was up by the look on his face. Rick nodded before walking over with a spoonful of applesauce.
"You think I'm trying to poison your baby daughter?"

"We don't know anything about you," I spoke up. "We don't know what you're capable of."

"I'm already tied up and you've expressed a willingness to stab me in the head," Aaron tried to reason with us. "How would cruelly killing your daughter in front of you in any way help the situation?"
Rick became irritated and kneeled down to Aaron's level. I was becoming irritated too. There was clearly something in the applesauce if he wouldn't even eat it.

"Maybe she doesn't die. Maybe she gets sick," Rick replied in an angry tone. "Maybe you're the only one that can help her and I just lose."

"I am the only one who can help her because I have applesauce and we all win," Aaron replied. We wouldn't all win if Judith got sick later on down the line. If he didn't eat it, she wasn't going to either. It was as simple as that.
Rick held the spoon up to Aaron's lips, but he moved away. "I hate applesauce."

"Here's the deal," I growled as I looked over at him. I was growing very pissed off with this whole thing. "If you don't eat it then neither does she. And if you don't eat it, I'm gonna kill you for trying to kill her. Simple enough?"

It was as if my words went in one ear and out of the other. He clearly didn't give a shit about what I had to say. That was pissing me off even more. "My mom used to make me eat foods that I didn't like to make me more manly. Salmon patties, applesauce, and onions. She was a very confused woman who tried her damndest."

"We don't give a shit," I shouted at him. His rambling was getting under my skin once again. He was clearly trying to stall for some reason.
"I just bring the jar to show that we have apple trees nearby," Aaron said, ignoring me once again.

"Like you said, you'll be the first to go," Rick replied, holding the spoon up once again. He was going to go soon if he didn't shut the fuck up. I let out a sigh of relief as he took the spoon in his mouth. All of that over some applesauce? It wasn't that serious.

Rick walked back over to the jar and began getting ready to feed it to Judith. I was happy to know that she would get some food in her system. "The community is big enough. We can find a place for you to live where even when she cries, no one, nothing can hear it outside the walls."

All this guy seemed to talk about was this community. I knew everything about it and I wasn't even there. I practically knew his entire life story at this point. He talked more than anybody I had ever met in my life.

"You got 43 minutes," Rick replied without emotion.

43 minutes was too long.