Animal Gone Wild [DISCONTINUED]

38

PARTIES AND FAIL SAFES

I was out hunting considering I was on a watch-list since my outburst. I was whistling while I walked through the woods, swinging my bat at my side in a fluid motion. The familiarity of it had me completely relaxed and content. I mean, sure, I was technically out here to hunt, but that didn't mean I enjoyed my time alone or with the familiarity of my movements. I also figured I would eventually run into Daryl at some point—I knew he left earlier this morning than normal.
I found a decent tree on my eventful walk and placed my bat back into it's original holster as I expertly climbed the tree with ease. I found a sturdy enough branch not far from the ground but far enough out of walker hands to sit and listen for awhile before I had to return. I eventually saw Daryl—Aaron was with him which was interesting. I re-positioned myself on my tree branch and waited for my time to strike. When they were close enough, I leaned down, my legs hold onto the branch, as I scared the living shit out of Aaron and Daryl. They both had their weapons pointed at me, Daryl was quicker to lower his than Aaron.
"The hell was that for Red," Daryl grunted, obviously annoyed.
I chuckled before grabbing onto the branch above with one hand and flung my feet off it, causing me to dangle before letting go of the branch and dropping easily to the ground, bending my knees far enough to ease the fall.
"well hey to you to Dixie," I rolled my eyes, giving Aaron a quick nod, "Aaron. What brings you two this far into the woods?"
Daryl grunted, walking past me. I turned with ease as I crushed a few levels under my feet as I followed after, Aaron taking the behind with confusion written all over his face.
"A horse."
I tilted my head before lifting an eyebrow at Daryl's words.
"A horse?"
"Did I stutter?"
I raised my hands in defense.
"Well I'm sorry, last I knew you rode bikes, not four-legged animals."
I could feel Daryl rolling his eyes at my words but refrained from commenting. I smirked knowing I had won this time. I turned to see Aaron watching us with intense confusion, but no questions were rising from his brain to reach his mouth, it was kinda hilarious. I gave him a lop-sided grin, directing my next statement towards him.
"You get used to it."
"Used to what," Aaron questioned.
"Our way of silently communicating, our normal conversations and how much annoyance we could easily sprout from each other."
I ended my sentence with a shrug. It was fairly simple. We weren't the most passionate of people, but hell, we did care. We just showed it differently than normal people would, since we were broken.

"Daryl," I commented, smacking his arm.
We came to a stop as he turned to me, waiting. I heard them, the walkers, and then a horse neighing in the distance. I rushed towards the noise, Daryl following wordlessly, while Aaron followed questioning what happened. We reached the horse, but it was pinned in with walkers.
"Counter," Daryl ordered.
"Too many."
"I got far ones."
"Aaron ahead, I'm gonna survey," I ordered, I whipped out my crossbow.
Daryl rushed ahead to deal with the farther ones while I dealt with looking around, Aaron was dealing with the other ones. Until he got knocked out. This time I was closer to the horse than them, so I tried to ease the walker count by taking some out. It didn't matter in the end when Daryl and Aaron came closer, with the remaining walkers I couldn't finish they had taken down the horse and started eating him. I sighed as we finished off the walkers, letting Aaron put down the horse.
"He always ran," Aaron sighed.
Daryl and I stood around for a bit before Daryl spoke up.
"You were trying to help him."
Daryl finally turned to leave, and I followed suit slipping my crossbow back over my back, easily replacing the feel of a weapon in my hand with my bat—twirling it beside me silently.

I grimaced at the feeling of being clean as I brushed down the plaid. I grumbled under my breath as I headed out the door, passing Daryl along the way.
"You're goin' to the party," he questioned.
I grunted in reply, grabbing a quick bite to eat before I left, with or without him.
"Why?"
I grimaced at the memory before turning to Daryl.
"Glenn," I stated.
That's all I needed for Daryl to nod in understanding. Unlike a jealous boyfriend, which he could be sometimes, he knew how special Glenn's friendship was to me, even Maggie's. Even knew my weird relationship with Rick, which wasn't anything like Glenn, Maggie, or Daryl's relationship. Same with Carl and Judith. I reached for the door before turning back to Daryl.
"At least try to make an appearance please? I don't wanna be the one to explain why you didn't come was because you're completely anti-social."
Daryl chuckled before walking over and giving me a soft kiss. I hummed before cocking an eyebrow.
"We'll see."
I rolled my eyes at his answer before heading to Deanna's. I entered the house and notice all the people and internally grimaced, already regretting being here. I figured Daryl wasn't going to actually make an appearance, even though that puts little faith on him from me as a girlfriend, I knew how he was. He wouldn't push his comfort zone, so I knew he wasn't actually going to show, but a girl could dream.
I was standing in a corner, and everywhere I looked people were chatting or laughing. I didn't like it. They acted like the world had never ended, like their lives were always sunshine and rainbows and never had a dark streak before the dead rose. I need to get out of here. Flashes of my brother were starting to come to mind and I didn't like it.
I quickly walked to the door, leaving and headed for home, trying to ease the panic that was rising inside of me. I rushed back to the house, slamming open the door, not even bothering to close it behind me. I rushed into the bathroom and started breathing heavily and in uneven pants of panic. I don't know how long it was before two arms quickly enveloped me and spoke calmly.
"Red, I need you to breathe with me. Can you do that for me?"
I nodded as I listened to the voice as I timed my breathing with theirs before I relaxed and eased into Daryl's arms.
"You okay?"
He leaned his head down into the crook my neck as I leaned into him; eyes closed. I shook my head slightly. He hugged me tighter.
"Well I ain't goin' anywhere Red."
"I know," I whispered, pulling out the dog tags to show his line of sight, "I think it's time I told you what happened while I was out on my own..."
Daryl gingerly took the dog tags from me and ran his fingers over the ingrain lettering. Katelyn Woodcock and Liana Woodcock.
"Red-"
"Mother and daughter. I looked for you for weeks Daryl...I went back down a road I thought—I thought I was cleared from. I hunted human and walkers."
I felt his arms tense around me. I lowered my gaze to the ground.
"Good, bad, it didn't seem to matter to me at the time—finding you was. There was a day I was on the move, getting away from the trail of walkers that had followed me when I heard them...it was either save them or deal with the walkers that were following me. I chose to save them, and the walkers inevitably followed too. When they told me of Terminus, I...I wasn't for sure if you guys were there or not, but it was the best option. So I went with them, I protected them like they were family."
Daryl eased before kissing my head, tears were flowing, but I wasn't sure if I could ever stop them.
"Red, you don't have to tell me anymore," he mumbled.
"We were holed up in a part of a Walmart. Liana had found an actual working tag for animals while I watched Katelyn sleep...and she made them. Saying I would survive longer than either of them. I told her that wasn't true—but the day after, Liana and Ka—Kat...Katelyn got bit."
I covered my mouth to muffle my sobs as Daryl tightened his grip on me.
"I had left to go hunting, thinking they were safe in the store. Turns out I was wrong and they just-"
"They're in a better place now Red," Daryl soothed, rubbing his thumb comfortingly against my stomach, "you kept 'em alive longer than they would've alone. It ain't your fault."
But it was.

Hello, Author here. I would like you all to know that since I've had my motivation ripped from me to continue a chapter in the future for this book, I will be updating every 2 weeks from here on out. But once I get my mojo back, it'll be back to every week. Take care and thank you for reading!