Stray // Daryl Dixon

The Magic Number Three

We were out in the world again, the outside, constantly on the move. At this point, it felt like this is where we were meant to be. Every place we tried to call our own would never work out for us. Part of me seemed okay with that for now. I knew this feeling wouldn't last, but after being reunited with ninety percent of our group, I felt safe. Even though we had no shelter, no guarantee for food and water, and our ammo would run out eventually, I could still sleep soundly at night.

We settled on a sheltered patch of grass for the night, most of the trees swallowing us whole for the time being. Tyreese put together a small fire, enough to keep us warm, but still tiny enough that it would be hard to spot by any lurkers. I believe I was one of the first to fall asleep, the hot flame ricocheting off the right side of my face with the comfort of Carol sitting next to me. It wasn't until Daryl woke me up for the second watch that I had to rub the sleep from my eyes and snap back into reality.

"Didn't want to wake you up," Daryl said as I sat down against the tree beside him, "You haven't slept for days."

I propped my gun between my legs, making myself comfortable. "And you haven't slept at all yet," I responded. "Besides, there's enough of us now, we only have to be on watch for an hour."

Daryl didn't respond, instead, he fell silent and I could feel him studying the side of my face as I stared at the treeline ahead. The glow of the fire only just reached our faces, allowing my peripheral vision to see that same look on his face like he wanted to ask something, but I knew he never would. Still, by now I knew Daryl well enough. He was wondering why I did what I did earlier in front of everyone. His face turned red hot when he realized everyone had seen.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said first, knowing what was on his mind. I glanced over at him quickly to see him chuckle.

"Didn't say anything," he shrugged, laughing at me.

"You didn't have to say anything," I scoffed, "besides who knew Mr. Dixon knew how to laugh," I sent him a glare, but he knew just as well that I was teasing.

"I'm only laughing at you Red, not with you," he said, a snort coming from him.

"I am not the one who went beet red," I stood my ground, "Merel would have said you lost your head." For a moment my heart sped because I realized I spoke without thinking, that I might have been out of line bringing up Merel.

"Nah, Merel liked you. In his own fucked up way," he answered and I felt relieved. "He definitely would have said I lost my mind though," he chuckled.

"You're-"

Daryl then held a finger up, silencing me. He stood abruptly, reacting to the same rustling I heard coming from the bushes ahead of us. We were silent as he slowly stepped forward, his crossbow raised as he studied the trees. There was no sound following the first one we heard and he dropped his weapon.

"Have you noticed it too?" I asked as he retreated back to me. "Something has been watching us," I said.

He looked over at me, the light playful air between us just seconds ago completely evaporating. "We keep that to ourselves for now. I'll talk to Rick about it tomorrow."

------

We were on the move again, as soon as the sun rose we continued through the forest. We weren't sure where we were headed yet, but for right now our only focus was putting as much distance between us and Terminus. Daryl set out to go hunting today, breaking off from the group and heading East to find any game. Although, water was becoming scarce and we would need to return back to the open road to stock up on supplies from a nearby town.