Fight to Survive (Daryl Dixon)

9. Tracking down Merle

Hello everyone. I am having so much fun writing this story, I got so many ideas in my head for it. I hope you are all liking it. Leave me a comment with what you think and dont forget to vote! :)

Chapter Nine

Daryl returned from within the house a few minutes later. He held a bag with some water and food in it, and what looked to be an old blanket. “There was not much left. Merle and I pretty much took everything when we left here,” Daryl told me. He placed the bag down on the floor of the passenger side of the truck.

“We will drive back to where the tyre marks were and drive that way, see if we can find any sign of where they might have took Merle.” Daryl hopped into the driver seat. I nodded to his plan and jumped inside the truck next to him.

I didn’t talk to Daryl as we drove along. I could tell he did not like the fact that I had a glimpse into what his life was like before all this happened. I really wanted to ask him about it. Ask him why he lived in such a horrible place like that. It made me think back to when I saw the scars on his back. They looked like he had been whipped, or something horrible like that. I wonder if they had anything to do with why he lived like that. Maybe he was too afraid of whoever did that to him, to ever leave that place.

“Was it Merle?” I found my voice asking.

“Was Merle what?” Daryl asked frowning.

“Was Merle the one who gave you those scars on your back?”

Daryl stiffened at my question. He did not look at me “How do ya know about them?” His voice held anger, and it frightened me a little.

“I saw them once when you were cleaning up at the stream.” I admitted.

“What were ya doin spying on me?” Daryl face turned to me, his eyes held a glare. “I should pull over and dump your ass on the side of the road for that shit!”

I looked away from Daryl’s burning eyes. I didn’t say anything back to him. The topic obviously upset him. But then again what was I really expecting. Daryl is not exactly the type to just open up and talk about things like that.

I sat quietly with my hands in my lap as we drove along. Daryl was quiet, he stared straight ahead of him out the dirt road as we drove along. Every now and then we would hit a bump, causing my body to jump up a bit in my seat.

“It wasn’t Merle.” Daryl voice broke the silence. I turned my head to look over at him. His face held sadness. At least he did not look angry at me anymore. “It was my father,” His voice was quiet, I could only just hear him.

“Oh,” I said awkwardly, regretting ever asking him about it. I had obviously brought back some pretty bad memories.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders, like it was no big deal.

“You didn’t deserve that to happen to you.” I looked at Daryl out of the corner of my eyes. Daryl was staring out ahead of him deep in thought. One hand was on the steering wheel and his other was resting on the gear stick. I slowly reached out and placed my hand on top of his. I gripped it in a comforting squeeze, trying to reassure him that everything would be alright.

I thought I saw a slight smile creep in the corner of his mouth. But before I knew for sure, he pulled his hand out from mine. When I removed my hand, he replaced his hand back on the gear stick.

“I don’t need ya feeling sorry for me.” His voice was deep and serious.

I started to understand why Daryl was the way he is. Why he’s cold and distant. He would have had one of the worst childhoods going. And I did feel sorry for him. No one should have to live the way he did. I dropped the subject, feeling it was probably better not to keep talking about.

***

“This is the place where they took Merle in the car,” Daryl hopped out of the truck to observe the tyre marks left on the road. Not far from us I could see the house Daryl and I stayed in last night. There was more walkers in the yard. It looked like they had broken down the front door and were now inside the house.

“It looked like they purposely did a burn out here so we could see what direction the car went,” Daryl shook his head confused.

“We shouldn’t stay here to long Daryl. They might notice us up here.” I said, pointing out the walkers to him. Daryl nodded, and hopped back in the driver’s side of the truck.

“Well they headed west, so I guess we will just head this way and see if we can find anywhere they might have taken him.”

“Alright,” I agreed. Daryl started the truck back up. I saw all the Walkers heads turn in our direction at the sound of the engine. “They see us, go!” I ordered Daryl. I did not have to tell him twice, we were off.

“Where does this road go?” I asked Daryl. I pull down the sun visor above my head to try block out the bright setting sun directly in front of us. It was hard to see very far ahead of us because of its blinding light.

“There is a small town about a day’s drive a head of us. Not much there.” Daryl was squinting, leaning forward to try see what laid a head of him. “Fuck this sun,” he grumbled, also pulling down his sun visor.

“It’s going to get dark soon,” I told Daryl.

“Yeah, we should stop for the night. We can park the truck off the road amongst the trees. Set off again in the morning.”

Daryl pulled over off the road where there was a big enough gap to get the truck through the trees. We had not seen many walkers outside the last town. So hopefully we would not get any trouble through the night. Just before the sun was completely gone, we ate some food Daryl had collected. We only had enough for one more feed tomorrow.

We sat in the truck awkwardly, not knowing what to say to one another. I was not feeling tired yet. “One of us will need to keep watch in case we are found by the walkers.” Daryl told me.

I nodded. “You can sleep first if you want. I’m not tired.”  

Daryl reached down to the bag at my feet. He pulled out the old blanket. It was a double. “Here,” Daryl put half the blanket over my legs, and placed the other half over himself. He checked to make sure the doors were locked, then rested the side of his head up against the window, closing his eyes. I looked down at my arms thinking about how long of a night it was going to be. I noticed that the rash on my arm was almost cleared up, and that made me feel a little better.

It was not before long I heard the muffle snores coming from Daryl’s mouth. I smiled as I looked at his sleeping face. He looked so peaceful, and maybe even cute. I shook my head at the thought. I probably shouldn’t be thinking those sorts of things. Daryl hated me, well at least I think he hates me. And I guess I kind of hated him too, or did I? I was not too sure how I felt about him just yet.

Thanks for reading. I have already started the next chapter so that should be out in the next couple of days.

Don't forget to vote and leave me a comment :)

Thank you to all my readers xx