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DARYL DIXON
the dog pants at my feet, looking up at me with his brown eyes and soft, pointed ears as i strap the bags to my bike. i let out a sigh as i look down at the animal, and then my gaze travels up to the cabin where i see her strawberry red hair through the window.
turns out the woman with the shotgun who damned rick and i for stealing two of her horses the day of we fled from that junkyard with a herd on our asses has a name—leah.
a nomad of sorts, just like me. the same dog that lies at my feet was just a baby when he found me in the woods, his owner not too far behind; about six months after the accident on the bridge. grey and i had been going out searching on our own, sometimes together, but i can stay out in the woods much longer than she can.
it was a day i was alone that the dog barked at me and leah pointed a gun at me ... for the second time.
i surrendered, backed away claiming i didn't want any trouble. i thought i'd never see her or her pet again, figured maybe the winter would scare them off and they'd head somewhere else.
it wasn't until two years had passed after rick's accident that i stumbled across a cabin tucked in these woods, the very same one i stand before now.
i didn't surrender or balk this time when i recognized the brown fur of the belgian shepherd, much bigger than the last time i saw him, and the scruffy thing ran to me with a single bark.
circling my feet and letting me pet him, the woman stepped outside of her cabin and stared me down, studied me, this time without a shotgun.
"he doesn't meet anyone out here, that's why he remembers you." she had said. and while that might've been true, i knew the dog liked me because the dog liked me. whether or not i'm the only other human besides her he'd been able to sniff out since birth. "i remember you too. you stole two of my horses right off my lawn, dragged the dead up to my doorstep." she recalled the day rick and i, bloody and limping, coerced those two mares out of their gate for us to ride.
"sorry." i had said, balancing on my feet as i continued to rub my hands through the dog's fur.
i felt leah's eyes on me as i pet her dog. after a while she invited me in, asked if i was hungry, but when i said no, she tied her hair up on top of her head and stepped out of the threshold of her cabin.
after that first walk in the woods together, we did it every time—every time i went out looking for rick, i'd spend the last hours of the day with her, before the sun went down and i went back to alexandria. we'd fish, talk, eat, and i can't explain why i kept coming back, why i seemed to enjoy the company of a woman who could've shot a bullet into my body on two occasions, but i did.
