Stray // Daryl Dixon

The Other Side of This Life

There had been a change of plans for today, almost everyone was going out scavenging. Tara and Glenn were headed out to some locations Gabriel said he had already looked through, but they thought they should give it another shot. Daryl was also now accompanying Carol in a search for water from a nearby town. I still decided to go along with Rick to bring back as many supplies as possible. The church was in a fairly secluded spot in the woods, most of its attendees before all of this living on acres of land with only a single town nearby. The more supplies we could pull together today, the longer we could stay shielded in the woods with shelter.

We were just entering town now, Gabriel leading the way. I could tell even by the way he carried himself that he was scared of what lay ahead of us. He was reluctant to come along, but under no circumstances was Rick going to leave him alone with the group back at the church.

This town looked like nothing special. A typical area that we have passed through many times before that had clearly been raided by other groups. Our only saving grace was that we were prepared to enter the places where no other person would dare to. So far the streets remained silent, there were no alarms going off that even a small herd was nearby.

"Has Daryl talked to you yet?" I asked Rick as we trailed at the back of the pack. I kept my voice low, wanting this conversation to remain between the two of us.

"He told you? He thinks someone is watching us," Rick answered.

"I brought it up to him first. I've noticed it too," I claimed, pulling my gun closer to my chest.

"He said it was a feeling."

"It is," I agreed, "Daryl would know better than anyone, but I get it too. A twig snapping here and there and once you take notice it's dead silent again. That feeling of eyes constantly on your back, hovering." I looked up at him. "It sounds crazy but--"

"We'll keep an eye on it," he interjected.

"We don't need another problem," I admitted, my brows furrowing with worry.

"That's why we keep it between the three of us for now. No need to worry people when we don't know anything for sure yet," he stated.

"Don't you think it would be better for people to know? To be alert?" I asked.

"People worry, people do dumb things--"

"This was the food bank. It served the whole county. All the cans at my church were going to end up here." Gabriel cut off our conversation. We were here.

Gabriel stood back as we entered first. We easily snapped back into our old routine of clearing rooms. Rick swung open the door, Michonne catching it behind him. We walked down a tight hallway before entering a larger common area. Rick's body swung to the right, his gun pointed towards the open room. This space was brighter than the hallway, the natural light peeking through the blindless windows. All other doors leading to separate rooms had been closed off, leaving this space clear and safe.

The room looked pretty trashed, chairs and tables flipped over, racks of donated clothes dispersed across the room, and shelves knocked down from the walls. As we walked further in I spotted a clear gaping hole in the floorboards, at least two meters wide. As we approached Rick held his hand up for us to stop following so he could investigate. The sounds of the walker's gurgles coming from down below. Rick leaned over, taking a peek. He then waved us over.

As I neared the broken floorboards, the smell wafting from down below was horrendous. I choked as I lifted my tank top over my mouth and nose, trying to shield myself from it. I stared down at the dozen walkers Gabriel had spoken of earlier. All of them submerged in belly-deep water, pacing around aimlessly looking for food. From sitting in the water so long some of their skin had begun to decompose in the water while others began to bloat and swell to no end.