Thick Skinned | Rick Grimes

II - Sunset Quarry

"Merle, stop up there!" Daryl yelled as he threw his hand in the direction of a campsite.

The older Dixon spun the wheel again, leading the three siblings towards an Rv and tents.

********

Daryl got out of the truck slamming the door behind him, "Hey, you got space for three more!?" He called to an old man sitting ontop of the Rv, binoculars round his neck and a fishing hat on his head.

The man spun around, he moved his gun over and stood up from his chair, climbing down the ladder, "Course we do, do you need a tent? We got four left, but we are trying to save them for as many survivors as possible."

"Could we have two? Please?"

"Course, i'm Dale Horvath." Dale smiled as he pulled out a red and green tent from a cupboard in the Rv and handed them to Daryl.

"Daryl Dixon, Merle Dixon, and thats Jo"

Dale sent a warm smile to all of them before pointing them in the direction of an empty patch of grass near the forest, "If you want you can put them over there"

"Thank you" Daryl said before walking back to his siblings, "Jo, wich tent d'you want?"

She pointed at the red.

"ok, me and Merle will have green, were fonna go set 'em up, go make friends." he instructed before walking away, leaving the girl alone by the truck.

****

A few minutes of loneliness passed for Jo, when a young blonde girl in a star t-shirt came over, "Hi, im Amy" She chirped.

Daryl who had just finished putting up the last tent smiled and tapped Merle shoulder so they could both watch, hopefully the outcast adult could make a friend.

But no, Jo opened her mouth slightly but no noise came out, just a single tear dripped from the corner of her hey and down the side of her nose.

Jo just turned around and sped-walked away to her dissapointed brothers.

"That's rude" Amy mumbled after her breath before going in the opposite direction.

Jo sat in her tent thinking wether or not it was worth it, talking to Amy. Or wether or not it would turn out like any other 'friendship' bruises and tears.

Jo pulled a book from out of her duffel bag, since the only thing she took was a pile of clothes, a family photo, a reading book, a sketch book and a ink spots cd.

She certainly had the bare-minimum.

"Watcha read'n?" Daryl queeried as he lifted the tent flap open. She held up the book to show the cover 'To kill a mockingbird - By Harper Lee'

Daryl smiled, "Nice", he walked closer to Jo before stiing beside her on the cot she had set up, "Y'know, Amy was just tryna be nice, i know yer an adult, i know that ya can take care of y'self but you gotta make friends. And to make friends you gotta talk."

She continued tolook at him, not making a sound.

Daryl let out a sigh, "Atleast come and watch the sunset go down over the quarry, it looks nice. And then we can atleast find out evryones name's"

Jo nodded slightly before dog - earing the page she was on and sliding the book into the bag.

****

Nearly everybody from the small group was there watching the ball of fire go down, it was a beautiful sight, the colours shone bright oranges and reds as it reflected onto the lake.

"Pretty right, you wanna talk now?" Amy smiled as she came over.

Jo still didn't speak, but she gave the blonde woman a small smile. Progress.

Published Wednesday 17th April 2023

(A/N it took me three days to right this 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Btw what are your opinions so far??

And how are you??)