The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 63 - Missing

I woke the next morning and found that Daryl was gone. A closer inspection showed that Carol was also missing. I walked outside to have a look around and saw nothing before heading back inside to find Rick just waking up.

"I think Daryl went out hunting early. Looks like Carol went with him." I informed.

"We've got plenty of food. He should take a day off for a change." Rick responded.

"Meat never goes astray." I shrugged. "Besides, he likes staying busy. Good for him, unless you want him to start carving up the floor boards with his knife." I joked and Rick chuckled in return the both of us knowing how stir crazy Daryl could get cooped up inside.

"I think Carol is getting a bit the same."

"No." I shook my head. "Not the same. What happened... with Karen and David. They would have died anyway, getting sick that early. But... to even think of it."

"I know. It's why I sent her away." Rick said. "But she's no threat to us."

"I know that. But being out here for too long, Rick... it can mess with your head. But sometimes... you need it. You need that reminder of what this world can really do. You do what you need to to stay alive. Carol was right... to do what she did. If there was a chance that it could have worked. How many would have been spared? She didn't forget. You started to. I started to. We can't let that happen again. Even at Terminus, Rick. Glenn and the others... they strolled right on in. We jumped the fence, we scoped it out but we still walked in. Carol didn't. And if she wasn't there... we wouldn't be here now. She let a little piece of this world into her Rick and she's alive because of it... we're alive. Maybe sometimes... it's okay to be a little bit vicious."

"Yeah." He nodded and then smiled over at me. "But only sometimes."

"Yes." I smiled back. "Just sometimes."

Everyone started to stir and wake up one by one. Abe was first on his feet and ready to go and I followed him out to the short bus, keeping my word to help him with it. Tara tagged along as well, curious to learn a thing or two and Rosita was never far.

For the most part it was a day to recover. Carl slept in, so much that I didn't see him until 11 and even then it looked like he had been forced into the waking world by Luke and Molly. I gave Molly back the throwing knives and they appeared to be dragging Carl out to practise with them.

"The driving belts on the way out."

"She'll do until we find another. Got to be something on the road somewhere." Abe said back. "Tara pass the 14mm spanner." He was lying under the car while I was looking from above and Tara running between the two of us.

"You should take out the air filter, give it a clean." I called down to him as I tugged on the driving belt just to make sure It felt like it would hold long enough.

Abe pushed himself out from under the vehicle once I finished speaking and stood up, presenting me with an air filter. "Already ahead of ya, darlin'"

I took it from him before he got back under the car and I moved with Tara to clean the filter.

"How'd you learn all this?" She asked.

"Family farm. Been in the family for a hundred years, sometimes it felt like all the gear around the place was just as old. Kind of have to learn, mechanics can get expensive." I shrugged. "What did you do? Before." I asked. I hadn't spoken to Tara much at all. So little in fact that I'd forget she was even there on occasion. Sometimes it even felt like she purposely avoided me.

"I was enrolled in the Atlanta Police Academy. I hadn't gotten all that far through training if I'm honest. When the outbreak happened my sister came right away and picked me up. We were shut up in an apartment building for a year. I did sweeps of the area but never went all that far." She stopped herself then.