Hate That I Love You

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

After Beth's death, we found a place to bury her and had a funeral. Father Gabriel read from his bible. Daryl took Beth's shoe strings and her knife. He took the white and red shoe strings and wrapped them around the bottom of his pant legs around his ankles. And attached the knife to his belt.

We had been walking and driving when we could. It had been hot and dry lately. Hasn't rained in a long time everything was dried up. Sasha, Maggie, Daryl, and I all had gone out to look for water. Sasha and Maggie went off on their own and I stuck near Daryl.

Eventually, we all met back up. None of finding any water or food. There hasn't been any game either.

We walked out of the woods and onto the dirt road back to the van. Rick, Michonne, Carl, Judith, Sasha, Tyresse, Carol, Maggie, Glenn, Carol, Daryl, and I were were in the van. Abraham, Rosita, Eugen, Gabriel, and Noah were gonna car in front of us.

Rick and Michonne sat up front, Carl held Judith with Sasha and Tyresse beside him. Maggie says on Glenn's lap, Carol sat in the middle between them and Daryl, and then I sat on his lap. It was kinda awkward but I ignored it. We had gotten a little closer. Not fighting as much since Beth died.

We headed to Noah's old neighborhood. Rick, Michonne, Glenn, and Tyresse all went with him while the rest stayed with the cars. Daryl wanted to go out hunting so I decided I'd go with him. Maggie had gone off to be by herself for a little while.

"Why are ya followin' me?" Dad asked.

"Because Daryl, I don't want to stay back there. I can't just sit around while my brother is out there," I told him.

"Hmm. Just be quiet," he said and continued to walk.

We were out for a few hours but found nothing. When we got back we found put that Tyresse had been bitten and they cut his arm off but he didn't survive. When they got back we buried him and Gabriel said a few words and read from his bible and we moved on.

It's been days that we've been walking. We had no food and very little water. We were all sharing a bottle. We were all just exhausted, tired, and thirsty.  We had a small herd of walkers following us but Rick said to save our energy and we would get rid of them if he became a problem.

Daryl was getting told Rick he was going to go hunt and Carol said she'd go with him but he refused. "Hey, I'm going to go with Daryl, okay?" I whispered to Rick.

"Wait Nik, I don't think I'm comfortable with you going out there by yourself," Rick said.

"Rick, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself," I told him and walked off in the direction Daryl went.

I was walking around looking for him when I saw a figure sitting against a tree. I admittedly recognized it as Daryl. I gasped as I saw him burn his arm with his cigarette. I ran admittedly ran over to him and took it throwing it to the ground.

"The hell ya doing here?" He growled.

"What the hell are you doing during yourself?" I countered.

I grabbed his arm and pulled my bag off my shoulders. I took out my first aid kit and cleaned the burn. "What are you doing, Daryl?" I asked.

"Nothin leave me alone," he said.

I noticed the tears in his eyes before he ducked his head down. "Daryl," I whispered.

I crawled between his legs and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. He tensed up but after a while, he wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer and crying into my shoulder.

"I miss her too," I whispered, and lets the tears fall.

After a few minutes of just sitting there comforting each other, I stood up and offered my hand to him. "Come on we have to get back to the group," I said.

He grabbed my hand and stood up. I linked put fingers and lead him back to the road. "M' sorry," he said.

"For what?" I asked.

"Everything," he said.

I stopped and turned to look at him "Daryl, you have nothing to be sorry about. What happened to Beth wasn't either of our faults. What happened to Hershel or anyone else we lost wasn't your fault. You saved me more times than I can count. Sure you can be an ass sometimes but I know you're a good guy whether you believe it or not," I told him.

He just nodded his head and we got back to the road. The group had taken care of the walkers so we continue to walk. After a few more hours we stopped as it started to get dark. I sat beside Daryl and leaned my head on his shoulder.

I noticed Rick looking at me so I gave him a questioning look only to get a wink from him so I flipped him off.

A pack of dogs ended up coming out of the woods across from us and growled. We all stood on edge until Sasha shot them all. As disgusting as it sounds that is what we ended up eating. You really couldn't be picking in this world and you will do anything to survive.

In the morning we continued to walk. We eventually came to a couple of packs of bottled water in the middle of the road and a note saying from a friend. No one wanted to trust it.

Eugene however grabbed a bottle only for Abraham to knock it out of his hands. It had turned out Eugene lied about knowing a cure and how to stop everything. So Abraham was pissed at him.

We heard thunder and then it started pouring. We got out of our bottles and let the rain fill them. But the weather was getting worse. "The barn. Daryl the barn," I said.

"I know where we can go. There's a barn a few miles back," Daryl said.

So that's what we did we headed to the barn. When we got there Maggie ended up killing one walker and we set it outside before shutting and locking the doors. We made a small fire. Some of us sat around it some went to bed. I sat beside Daryl who sat beside Rick.

Rick told a story about our grandfather. "We are the walking dead," he finished.

That didn't settle with Daryl "we ain't them," Daryl said.

"No, we aren't them, Daryl. We aren't them," I said glaring at Rick. 

Daryl got up and walked over to Maggie sitting beside her. He pulled out a music box and gave it to her. Beth had found it and kept it. He had fixed it so it would play the music. He got up and headed to a separate area and laid down.

I got up and walked over laying beside him looking up at the ceiling. "That was sweet of you," I said and he just hummed. Shortly after I fell asleep.