Alone (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

Chapter One

Disclaimer -- I don't own anything about TWD. Only the few characters I created.

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In high school I remember joking about not being able to make it out the front door if there was a zombie apocalypse. The good old days, when everything was just jokes. Now the people I made those jokes with are all dead. I know because I watched them be torn apart by the undead.

Its been a year since the dead began to rise, and I'm still as clumsy and uncoordinated as I was when things were sunshine and rainbows, the only difference is now I have the mind and will to kill something. Not that I want to, by any means, but if it keeps me alive.

The forest is quiet, almost too quiet. I snapped my head to the left. Swiftly and careful to stay as quiet at humanly possible, I creep towards the small rabbit sniffing a tree. Pulling a small throwing knife out from a bag on my hip, I pull my arm back. I wouldn't kill it if I didn't have to, but that doesn't mean I want to. Taking a breath, I aim. I hit him in the back of the neck. I'm proud of myself, but it still feels wrong seeing it go limp. After walking over to the rodent, I pick him up and pull the knife from its body. He's a good one, I'll finally get a good meal.

I strap him to my belt and start my journey back to the cabin I've been hiding out in. Its small, about 1,000 square feet, but for one person in a world crisis, it'll work. it's a warm day in autumn, a little windy. Leaves are drifting down from the trees, beautiful and calming. During my hunt the little noises of the forest cam back. little chirps of birds, the flow of a stream a little ways ahead, and the occasional moan of the undead can be heard, though I kill off the walkers without a second thought.

I get there after about 15 minutes. Walking through the front door, I notice everything is how I left it. I pull my shoulder length red hair from its ponytail on top of my head, and instantly miss showers. Its funny how the things I took for granted are the things I miss the most in the new world. I put some logs in the fireplace that sits against the far wall in the main living room. After starting a fire with old newspapers and some matches, I start to prepare the rabbit to be cooked. I try to focus on the idea of food, but I'll probably never get used to killing innocent animals, the same animals that used to sit in cages in the barn behind my old house.

After eating and cleaning up the mess I made, I head down the hall to the bedroom. I don't bother changing my clothes, not that I had anything cleaner, but I do slide off my brown steel toed boot. I somehow got lucky and found them at a hardware store back in Ohio. Currently I'm hiding out in northern Kentucky. I crawl under the thin sheet, and try to sleep. Sleep is always a hard thing for me to achieve, its been a problem long before to apocalypse.

When I was a kid, around 12 or so, I had horrible nightmares. Now that I'm 19 the dreams seem to have multiplied. I can't sleep for more than an hour before seeing myself die, or wake up to an undead breaking down my door, or the same one I had as a kid. I've always dreamt of being alone. But I always have this dream that someone gives me a place to belong, but I do something that upsets them and they leave. This person never has a face, but they scare me. I hate being alone, its my biggest fear. I'm scared at the thought of dying alone, but I know I eventually will. The only people alive nowadays just want your body, whether for food or a punching bag.

Morning came after six long hours of tossing and turning, and little to no sleep. Getting out of bed, I pull on my boots and plan my day. I should probably move on from this place. There barely any food left and I'm getting tired of edible plants I find in the forest, and rabbits. I could kill for some peanut butter. I start packing the essentials in an old backpack. Knives, a pistol, a few bottles of water, a spare set of clothes, a blanket, and the hairbrush I found in the bathroom. I also decide to bring the toothbrush and toothpaste I found in a store about a mile up the road from here. I cant stand not brushing my teeth, even if I cant use water to rinse my mouth.