Forbidden Love- Rick Grimes Love story

74

Daryl POV

I followed alongside Joe as we walked the train tracks. "So what's the plan, Daryl?" Joe asked breaking the silence. "How so?" I ask him and he shrugs, "You're with us now, but you ain't soon?" I nodded, "Yep." He waves his cigarette in his hand, "So what's the plan?" I shrug "Just looking for the right place is all." We had a place, the prison, and now that's gone. I'm not sure if anywhere is actually safe anymore. Joe scoffed, "Oh, we ain't good enough for you, huh?" I looked ahead to Len, "Some of you ain't exactly friendly." He looks back at me, "You ain't so friendly yourself. You know you need a group out here." My mind thought back to everything the quarry group was overrun, the CDC was blown up, the farm was overrun, the prison was torn apart, and Joey and Beth are gone. Maybe I wasn't meant to be apart of something. I shook my head, "Maybe I don't." Joe spoke over me, "No, you do. You should be with us." A walker snarling broke our attention, but Joe continued talking, "People don't got to be friendly. We don't have to be nice. We don't have to be brothers in arms." One man pushed a walker to the other guy to hold as another stabbed it in the head. Joe sighed, "We just got to follow the rules. You claim. If you steal, you keel. I  know that sounds a little funny, but nobody laughs when something goes  missing. And you don't lie. 'Cause that's a slippery slope indeed." I look up to him, "What happens if you break 'em?" Joe shrugs, "Oh, you catch a beatin'. The severity of which depends upon the offense  and the general attitude of the day. But that don't happen much 'cause  when men like us follow rules and cooperate a little bit, well, the  world becomes ours." He then whistles to the other men and points to the house, "Right there. It's our abode for the evening." Our. There is no ours, the moment I find something better, I'm done. "Hey." I paused causing Joe to stop, "There ain't no us." He walked up to me, "You leaving right now?" When I didn't answer he nodded, "No? Then it sure seems like there's an us." He starts to walk away, but then turns back to me, "You a cat person, Daryl? I am. Loved 'em since I was three years old. Vicious creatures. Anyway, I'll tell you, and this is true, ain't  nothing sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks he's an indoor cat." With that he walked away. He's right all my life I've felt on the outside, but the prison, they treated me like family and that my past never mattered. But ain't nobody ever treat me the way those girls did. I belong there, not where I am now.

We entered the building with our guard up, not knowing who or what could be inside. I shut the door as we walked in. "They ain't here. Nobody's been here for a while." Joe stated. I assume they're following the tracks of somebody. I placed my crossbow on the car. "Whoever was, they got all the gas." On guy said and Joe shook his head, "That don't matter. We're getting closer. I can feel it." Some guy walked up to the car I was at and kicked my trash bag away, "Claimed." Every car I walked up to people 'claimed.' There was no way I was doing that shit. I walked up to this truck as Len threw his bag in it and arrogantly said, "Claimed." I rolled my eyes as I laid my bag on the ground, then laid on top of it. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom, then laid in my same spot. I was laying there for a while when I heard, "You've got to be kidding me. Christ." Len walked over to me and I sat up. He threw his hand out, "Give it here." "You step back." I warned him standing up. He pointed to his stuff, "My half was in the bag. Now it's gone. Now ain't nobody around here interested in no half a damn cottontail except you. Ain't that right?" I pointed my finger at him angrily, "You're the only one still thinking about that crap." He stepped to my bag, "Empty your bag." I grabbed before he could touch it, "I said step back." Joe walks over to me and snatches my bag out of my hand. He looks to me, "Did you take his rabbit, Daryl? Just tell me the truth." I looked at him before looking back to Len, "I didn't take nothing." "What do we got here?" Joe asks himself as he dumps my bag out. All my stuff falls out including the head of the rabbit. "Well, look at that." Joe says looking to the rabbit. I angrily pointed my hand at Len, "You put that there, didn't you? When I went out to take a piss." He shook his head, "You lied." I pushed him back, "Didn't you?" Len pushed me back, "You lied. You stole." Len looked to Joe, "We gonna teach this fool or what, Joe?" Joe waves his hands, "Whoa, whoa." He motions to me, "Now, Daryl says he didn't take your half of the rabbit. So we got a  little conundrum here. Either he's lying, which is an actionable  offense, or..." He pauses laughing as he looks to Len, "Or you didn't plant it on him like some pussy, punk-ass, cheating,  coward cop, did you? 'Cause while that wouldn't be specifically breaking  the rules, it'd be disappointing." Len nods, "It would." Joe hums in agreement. Len gets in Joe's face, "I didn't." Joe nods, "Good." He starts to turn to me, no way this guy actually believed his bullshit story. Joe turns back to Len punching him in the face as Len falls to the ground. Joe looks to his men, "Teach him a lesson, gents. He's a lying sack of shit. I'm sick of it. Teach him all the way." They start beating Len and I look to Joe confused. He shrugs, "I saw him do it." I got slightly angry, "Why didn't you try to stop him?" Joe shrugs, "He wanted to play that out. I let him." He points at me, "You told the truth. He lied. You understand the rules. He doesn't." He leans down and picks up the rabbit throwing it to me, "Looks like you get the head, too."

The next day we woke up and we headed out. As we left I saw Len's body laying next to the stairs with his own arrow in his eye. These people were bad news, and I knew that. Carol killed people back at the prison, and Rick just let her out here on her own. There isn't an eye for an eye anymore, not in this world. I thought back to when we were at the country club with that women and Beth wanted to cover the body, she would want me to do that. I thought about the kind of guy Len was and what he said about Beth and Joey and threw the blanket on the ground before following the rest of the guys. Not even the girls would've wanted me to cover him.

Joe took a drink of his flask before offering it to me. I nodded to him to see what was in it. "White Lightning. Easiest thing to make with the least amount of  supplies. I'd start slow if I was you. Your stomach's probably emptier  than you think." I took a drink before handing it back, "Mmm. I ain't been lit at dawn since before everything fell apart." Joe hummed, "Fell apart. I never looked at it like that. Seems to me like things are finally starting to fall together. At least for guys like us. Living like this, surviving. We've been doing this from the start, right?" One of the guys look at a sign then back to Joe, "Getting closer." I walk up to the sign and read it, "You seen this before?" It's a sign for Terminus, a sanctuary. Joe nods, "Oh, yeah. I'll tell you what it is. It's a lie. Ain't no sanctuary for all. Ain't gonna welcome guys like you and me with open arms." He walked past me following the tracks.

"So is that where we're headed?" I asked him as we followed the tracks. He chuckles slightly, "So now you're asking?" I nod, "That's right." He sighed, "We were in a house minding our own business and this walking piece of fecal matter was hiding in the home. Strangled our colleague Lou and left him to turn. Lou came at all of us. He lit out. We tracked him to these tracks, one of those signs, and thus we've got a destination in mind." "You see his face?" I asked him and he shook his head, "Only Tony. That's enough for a reckoning." I see the man ahead looking down at some tomatoes beside the tracks, before he can say or do anything I walk up and call out, "Claimed."