Stray // Daryl Dixon

Straight to the Heart

* Two Months Earlier *

"Do you love him?" Glenn asked. I knew exactly who he was talking about without him having to say it. He stood beside me in the guard tower, his arms rested against the railing as I peered through the scope of my rifle. It was our night shift for keeping a lookout, for both walkers and the Governor.

I dropped my rifle from my view, blindsided by his question. We weren't on a topic even remotely close to that subject. We actually weren't talking much at all. Glenn spent most of his days alongside Maggie and vice versa. Although, even when we were together there wasn't a need for a lot of conversation. There had always been a comfort between us, each of us being our first friend in the new world. And when we did talk there was nothing left unsaid between us. He was my little piece of Ben that I had left.

"Is there any room for love in the world we live in now?" I responded without actually giving him an answer. I could see him look over at me, his eyes studying the side of my face for any indication of how I actually felt.

"I found Maggie," he said. "What's the point of fighting through any of this if it's not for something," he paused, "or someone?"

"I guess you're right," I murmured, pondering over the thought.

"How cruel is it to think that if it weren't for the apocalypse I probably would have never met Maggie, or you, or anyone else here for a matter of fact," Glenn said. My head immediately whipped to my left, finally looking at him.

I studied him for a moment. I understood where he was coming from, I really did. We have met people along the way that we have grown to care for, put our trust in, and rest our life in their hands.

"Are we really worth it though? Worth your parents' lives, your sisters', your friends'?" I asked. I wasn't trying to be vicious towards him, I was simply trying to understand where he was coming from.

"In a perfect world, if this whole outcome was avoidable then no," he answered, his lips pressing hard against one another in a straight line, "but if this apocalypse was always meant to happen, then yeah, you guys are worth it. I wouldn't want to be with anyone else."

I sighed, taking another peek through my scope before dropping it to my side again once the perimeter was cleared.

"Do you ever wish you just stayed on your own? Isolated yourself?" I asked the burning question in the back of my head. "It would save us all this trouble of the weight of holding other people's lives in our hands and the heartache we feel when we lose them... when we can't save them."

Glenn huffed out a laugh, shaking his head, "We would have been dead a long time ago and you know that," he said, making light of the conversation. A smile crept onto my face as he chuckled.

After that, we were back to a peaceful silence. I believe we both sat there in our own heads thinking about the conversation. I placed my hand on my rifle again, ready to resume what we were supposed to be up here for. I looked over at Glenn one last time.

"I do love him," I confessed.

"Are you ever going to tell him?" he asked.

"No, probably not."

--------

My feet landed in a dry pool of blood. I ordered Daryl to put me down once I collected myself. We stood in what I assumed to be what Gareth had referred to as the driers. There were four separate stations placed in the room, each one with a human torso propped up on a hook as the blood drained from it. The room had clearly been evacuated in a hurry. Trays of organs still laid out on the tables with the tools sprawled out in disarray around the room. We collected them carefully, nauseous by what we stumbled upon.