BLACK OUT DAYS | THE WALKING DEAD

Alone

Nate's lost track of how long they've been together for. The first few days after they burned down the cabin were spent recovering from his and Beth's first hangovers(Daryl really had his hands full wrestling the two of them to stay put in camp) and then trying to track down the others. Beth had somehow managed to get Daryl to teach them both how to track. He took a few hours with each of them separately and Nate felt odd holding Daryl's bow and learning how to properly use it instead of using it to swing at walkers. Which..he should've realized how heavy it was before then. He kept his eyes glued to the ground and on the footprints left behind in the dirt and he frowned at the dragged pattern of them.

"Are we tracking a walker?" He ended up asking, even though he already knew the answer. He could feel Daryl's hot breath on him as the man leaned over his shoulder and Nate glanced back at him, letting the bow fall to his side. Daryl arched an eyebrow and let out a hum.

"I dunno, you tell me." Nate rolled his eyes at the reply but rolled his right shoulder as a sting of phantom pain from his old gunshot wound suddenly hit him. It's been happening a lot more often lately as he was finally over his flu. He wasn't sure how that worked at all but it was weird. He wondered if Glenn was still sick, or alive. God, he hoped he and Maggie were together, maybe they had Alice with them. He didn't think he would miss her as much as he did. He sighed and perched the bow back into its position. They found an open field within a few more feet and a walker was just ahead of them, pacing in circles.

"The arrows are sometimes tricky with walkers, sometimes you get them and other times it'll bounce right off. You need to be closer so just.." He trailed off and gave Nate a bit of a nudge and he tried to be as quiet as he could without being detected and once the walker turned with a snarl, Nate figured that was the amount of distance Daryl was talking about and he aimed the bow with its head and finally pulled the trigger. The arrow landed right through the walker's nose and it tumbled to the ground. Nate stood up straighter and quickly turned around to Beth and Daryl with a large smile on his face.

"I did it!" He exclaimed in disbelief and Beth lightly clapped her hands and jumped a bit in her own excitement and then she immediately winced and Nate realized it was because of her foot that had gotten caught in an animal trap just the day before when she had been learning herself. She could still move it and everything but Nate knew that it still hurt her.

"Don't forget to retrieve it. Most important part." Daryl said, moving forward to yank it out of the walker's skull and Nate looked down at it, his smile dropping slightly.

"Oh, right." He responded, and Daryl wiped the leftover blood on his jeans. He handed the bow back over to him and Daryl took it as he walked back towards Beth and put her arm around his neck to help her walk. Nate noticed a building in the distance, beyond several graves and both he and Daryl had begun walking towards it, but Beth suddenly stopped walking.

"Can we hold up a sec?" She asked, and Nate glanced back to see that she was bending down and twisting her ankle around.

"You alright?" Daryl asked, she shrugged.

"Yeah, I just need to sit down." She replied and then Daryl held his bow out for Nate to take and he furrowed his eyebrows but did so anyways and then his face broke out into a grin after Daryl crouched down in front of her.

"Are you serious?" She asked as Nate threw the strap of the bow across his back.

"Yeah, this is a serious piggy back, jump up." He replied. "You're heavier than you look." He grunted after she jumped onto his back. "Don't laugh!" He immediately scolded Nate, who raised his hands up in defense but was still smiling.

"You think there are people there?" Beth asked after they began walking again.

"Yeah, if there are, we'll handle them."