❝ You're caught in my crosshairs again. ❞
In which a Navy SEAL,
a doomsday prepper,
and an extroverted
12-year-old find life in the
apocalypse alongside a
group of...
𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐒. chapter fifty-three; Still With Her "You said you wouldn't leave again, so don't."
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THE GROUP HAD been walking for miles before they approached a small pileup of cars on the road. A brief oasis in the sweltering heat.
"I'm gonna head out in the woods. Circle back."
"I'll come with."
"Nah--"
"I wasn't asking."
Daryl looked at Vex momentarily, before turning and starting for the forest. She followed without another word.
There were hardly any signs of life at all. No squirrels, no footprints, no animal tracks. Not a damn thing in the dried-out dirt of Virginia.
Daryl slowed when he spotted a deer carcass. He inspected it, and the human remains at the base of a tree nearby, before standing again.
"Nothin'."
"Seems like all we can find lately."
Daryl grunted, starting his pace again.
Vex debated saying anything at all. She doubted he would be open to it after three weeks of silence, his distance from everyone.
It stung. Perhaps that's why it was so hard to face. Because facing it meant admitting that it hurt Vex because she cared about him. Facing it meant admitting her worry had tied knots in her stomach, and chased the idea of sleep away many nights.
"Zep misses you."
Daryl's pace slowed at her soft admission. He glanced out of the corner of his eye, but her gaze was trained on the forest around them. Anywhere but him.
"She'll be alright."
It was the weakest attempt to brush off the weight of the real conversation. The unsaid things that the statement carried. The reality of him already being in too deep.
"I miss you, too."
Daryl wished he wouldn't have frozen at that. He wished it didn't impact him the way it did. And when he looked at her, he wished she wasn't already staring at him.
Being vulnerable had never been his forte, and dealing with people who pushed emotional conversations and connections shook every emotion and thought up in his head until nothing made sense.
And Vex had always pushed the envelope. She had meant something to him before he knew those possibilities were even inside of him.
"If you. . . if you need space, tell me, but. . . Zep doesn't get it. She's sad and scared and tired and. . ." Vex let out a long, shaky breath, "I'm worried about you because I care about you. You said you wouldn't leave again, so don't."
