Give Me Your Crossbow (DARYL DIXON)

The Ever Elusive Dixon

CHRIS POV

A scream tore through the air as we all sat around talking. We all stood up and ran, Carl and Sophia were at the edge of the campsite. They were frozen, watching a walker devour a deer. The deer had three arrows in its back, it's blood seeping into the earth and covering the walkers face. Dale ran and chopped its head off, but yet it still moved. A rustle in the bushes made us all stop and draw our weapons.

"Fucking dumb walker! I've been tracking this thing for miles and this fucker had to go and contaminate it!"

A man with cropped brown hair, a small beard and small eyes came out of the trees. He was carrying a crossbow and had a rope with dead squirrels tied to it. This must be the ever elusive Daryl. He sighed and shot his last bolt into the walkers head.

"Don't ya'll know to aim for the head? The only way you'll kill it."

"I'm sure the meat is still fine Daryl."

"No way! I'm not risking it. Merle! Get out here, ya lazy fucker!"

I took a step towards the man, my confidence rising pretty quickly.

"Do ya wanna attract more walkers up here?!"

He looked at me dumbfounded, and he took a step back.

"Where's Merle?"

Shane and Rick looked at each other, before Shane cleared his throat.

"There was a problem in Atlanta." He touched his face for a second, showing how uncomfortable he was to say it, then moved his hands to rest on his hips. Daryl turned to look at Shane, I saw his eyes darken in colour.

"He's dead? "

"We're not sure." After that, Daryl got up in his face, his voice was getting stronger and stronger.

"Either he is or he isn't."

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick took a small step forward, ready to face Daryl.

"Who are you? "

"Rick Grimes"

"Rick Grimes, do you have something you want to tell me?" I could see the muscle in his cheek twitching as he spoke to my brother.

"Your brother was a danger to all of us, so I handcuffed him on a roof, cuffed him to a piece of metal. He's still there", He looked at me for a second before wiping his nose and looking Daryl straight in the eyes.

"Let me get this straight. So, you handcuffed my brother on a roof, and you left 'im there?"

Daryl grabbed his rope and threw the squirrels at Rick, before readying himself to jump onto Rick. I raced forward and pushed Daryl back, stepping protectively in front of my brother. He pulled out a knife and got ready to strike again, but I whipped around, grabbing the knife out of his hand and pushing him into Shane. Shane grabbed Daryl into a headlock and I put the knife into my pocket.

"Headlock's illegal!"

"You need to calm the fuck down! We don't know if Merle is dead or not."

"He shouldn't be."

I turned to my brother, raising one eyebrow. Daryl stopped struggling and looked up at my brother as well.

"What do you mean 'shouldn't be'?"

"We chained the door shut. We are planning to go back for him."

"Good, Let's go."

Shane looked at me, I gave him a slight nod and he let Daryl out of the headlock. Daryl let out a grunt before stalking back towards camp.

I could've sworn that he looked me up and down then.

****

The boys had left not that long ago, the ladies went down to the creek to do the laundry. I looked through my clothes and noticed that most of them were stained. I grabbed a handful and one of the extra buckets and headed to the creek with the others. Doing my laundry the old fashioned way was not very nice on my hands.

"I'll tell ya, I miss the washer. This is murder on my hands."

"I miss my phone."

"I miss my coffee machine."

"I miss my vibrator."

We all looked over at Andrea, a small smile playing on her lips. Carol stood up and wiped her hands.

"You know what? Me too!"

We burst out into laughter, I held my sides as we all laughed. It had been a while since I had fully laughed, and it felt good again.

"This ain't a comedy show! Stop laughing and keep washing!"

I turned to see Ed, Carol's husband, rushing down the hill towards us. We all stood up and took a step towards Ed. Carol genuinely looked terrified, so I put one arm around her.

"Why don't you do it!? You lazy bastard!"

Andrea's eyes narrowed as she stared down the older man.

"Get back to work now!"

"You ain't the boss here, and I sure as hell ain't doin the laundry of an ungrateful piece of shit!"

Ed's face turned bright red and he turned to look at Carol, still in my arms. He walked over to us, fists clenched at his sides.

"Come on Carol. We have better things to do."

He grabbed Carols wrist, trying to pry her away from me.

"Don't even think about it! She ain't going nowhere with you! We all know what you do to her and Sophia, you piece of shit."

He got even more angry and still kept trying to pull Carol out of my grip. I could feel his fingers trying to wrench me off her. All the ladies started to yell as Ed still fought against me. Next thing, I felt wind against my face and Ed's hand made contact with Carol's face. Everyone froze and suddenly Shane came barrelling around the corner. He grabbed Ed's collar and pulled him to the ground. His fist laid into Ed's face over and over, his knuckles spewing with blood.

"Shane stop! Please stop!"

Tears ran down Carol's face as we all watched the action unfold. Shane finally stopped and he grabbed Ed's collar again, pulling him towards his face.

"You ever lay a hand on your wife or anyone else in this camp again, I won't stop next time. You hear me?!"

He let go of Ed and stood up, wiping his nose and turning to us. He gave us all a slight nod, his eyes lingered on me a while before walking back towards camp. Carol ran over to Ed's battered body and cried her eyes out.

I'll never know what goes through that woman's head.