Muted // A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

•Chapter Forty Six•

M U T E D

Season 4

Daryl's Point of View:

I stepped outside after dressin myself and I walk over to the dining shack. Carol's at the grill, cookin up the deer meat. I went huntin yesterday and I brought back a big deer. Everyone was real happy about it and they all thanked me. Now, stepping outside, everyone is lookin at me, smilin, thankin me. It feels a little weird to have all the attention from just about everybody here.

"Morning, Daryl." I turn my head and see the doctor.

"What's up, Dr. S?" I greet him back.

"Morning, Daryl."

"Morning, Daryl!" I turn back and see everyone smilin and wavin at me. I turn back to the grill and look at Carol.

"Smells good." I say.

"Just so you know; I liked you first." She smiles jokingly.

"Stop." I say and accept the bowl of deer meat from her. Carol and I grew close. Not as close as B and me, but if I were to ever get married, Carol would be my best man.

"You know, Rick brought in a lot of them, too." I point out, referring to the deer and squirrels.

"Not recently." She says. "Give the stranger sanctuary, keeping people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love." She smiles at me.

"Right." I say.

"I need you to see something." She turns to Patrick standing nearby. "Patrick, you wanna take over?" She asks him.

"Yes, ma'am." He smiles as Carol hands him the tongs. "Mr. Dixon," I turn to him. "I just wanted to thank you for bringing that deer back yesterday. It was a real treat sir. And I'd be honored to shake your hand." I glance back at Carol before licking all of my fingers clean of the grease and slap my hand into Patrick's, shaking it. I look back to Carol and she rolls her eyes at me. We walk away from everyone and I glance out to the field, seein B helping Rick and Carl with the crops out in the field. Carol and I get to the gate and we look down at the main gate. There are walkers piling up at the fence and we have people who volunteered to work the fence, poppin the walkers through the fence.

"About today, I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run." She starts.

"That place is too good. We're gonna move on it." I say.

"Yeah. The thing is, we had a pretty big buildup overnight. Dozens more toward tower three. It's getting as big as last month. They don't spread out anymore. With more of us here, we're drawing more of them out."

"You get enough of those damn fence-clingers, they start to herd up. Pushin against the fences again." I say.

"It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long." She says. "Sorry, Pookie." She pouts sadly.

"Pfft." I nudge her back and walk away.

"You okay?" She asks me.

"Yeah. I'm good. You?" I ask her.

"Well, ever since you lost Merle, Bobbie almost lost her mind. Have you thought about it?" She asks.