The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 52 - We Go Left

Molly screamed as I drove Daryls hunting knife up under the chin of a walker and into its brain before quickly ripping it out and slicing across and down over the second one, cutting deep enough into its temple to kill it.

"Shhh." I ran up to her, kneeling down in front and brushing a strand of hair back from her eyes. "Molly, I know it's hard but I need you to stay as quiet as you can okay. If you get scared... just look away and trust me that it's going to be okay." She nodded slowly. "Good girl." I stood up and looked over to where Luke was gravitating closer to the dead, looking down at its corpse with an expression that was a mix of horror and curiosity. "Stay close, Luke." He looked back right away and immediately moved back over to us. "Now listen. We need to cover a few ground rules, alright."

Both Molly and Luke were from Woodbury and had pretty much always been inside the walls there and at the prison. Their working knowledge of safety measures beyond the walls was only theoretical.

"If we get into trouble and I tell you guys to run or even if I'm running with you... you hold hands, got it? Under no circumstances are you two to split up." Luke looked over to Molly and then back to me and nodded. "Second... if you get separated from me... there is a train track in that direction." I pointed north, the both of them following my finger. "You find it and I will try and meet you somewhere along it. Now it's to the north, runs the whole way along. Do you know how to find the north?"

"Keep the sun on the right in the morning and the left in the evening." Molly answered. "Carol was teaching us some things."

I smiled. "Good. And what do you do at night? When there is no sun?"

"I know you can follow stars but I don't know how." Molly shook her head.

"You don't." I shook my head. "I don't want either of you moving anywhere at night if you can help it. It's safer at day when you can see everything around you. If we get separated at night you find a tree. You climb it and you stay there until day break." I said firmly.

"I can't reach." Like shook his head.

"You'll be able to find one you can." I said adamantly. "But you'll help each other regardless. Molly you're taller, so if you find one that you can reach and Luke can't you have to help, okay." She nodded. "Now listen, I have to go back to the prison."

"What?" Luke yelled at the same time Molly said, "You can't!"

"I have to. We don't have any food, water, blankets. All I have is Daryls knife and I can't be walking around the woods with you two, it's not safe. All I have to do is get to my car. I keep emergency supplies in it. She's parked out the front near where the tank came in. I didn't run to her because we were supposed to get to the the bus and then the path was blocked. If I go in through the same way the Governor did, there's enough space in the front yard for me to dodge a lot of the walkers there and I can drive straight back out."

"They'll be too many by now!" Molly protested.

"Maybe not. Not for one person and not if my goal is just to duck in and run out, not clear it. A lot of the walkers will be attracted to the fires made by the tank and if I need to I know a trick or two to get by unnoticed. Now come on. I need you to get up this tree and stay there."

"How long will you be?" Luke asked.

"I don't know." I shook my head. "I should be back before the sun sets but if not." Luke started to shake his head. "Listen to me, if I'm not, you stay up there, take shifts, make sure one of you is awake at all times and do not move until it's light out. By then any walkers that are in this area would have been drawn to the prison already. The woods would mostly be clear." I lied. "You find that train track and you follow it. Someone else from the prison that doesn't know navigation as well will follow it as well as a guide line; you'll find someone." I lied again. My eyes glanced over to the two dead walkers. "There's one more thing. You're not going to like it. But if you need to travel without drawing attention to the dead... you need to cover yourself in the dead."