Life I Left Behind (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Chapter Ten

Randall’s shouts faded away quickly as I put more and more space between myself and the old shack that had been my prison, and hopefully would never be again. I was sure his yelling had caught someone’s attention by now, but I had already reached the forest and was weeding my way in and out of trees. I realized I didn’t have my pack or any of my weapons, but I would deal with that later. I’d rather be out here, running for my life and unprepared then trapped in that shack with an asshole, wondering how much longer I was going to be kept alive.

I didn’t stop running. Not even when I stumbled upon walkers. I didn’t want to waste my time or energy dealing with them. Plus, it would have been more trouble than it was worth to find a way to kill one without my bat or my knife. They weren’t my biggest problem for once, which was weird to think about. Things had gotten sort of backwards for me. For the past couple of months, there had been this hope buried inside of me that I would stumble across more survivors and that I finally would be able to have actual conversations instead of keeping my voice intact by singing to myself all the time. So it felt just a tad ironic that I was currently running from the only humans I had seen and spoken to in what felt like forever. I didn’t think too hard about it, though. Considering that they had felt it was okay to lock me up like a wild animal, I didn’t feel too sad about leaving them behind.

I ran until my breath became ragged and there were stitches in my side. Only then did I stop. I slumped against the nearest tree, trying to catch my breath. It was then that I was hit with the realization that I also didn’t have any food or water. That was a huge problem. “Shit.” I groaned. I slammed my fist against the tree in frustration, which resulted in nothing more than bruised and bleeding knuckles. I knew I was in a bad situation and I felt panic beginning to jumble my insides. I forced it down, though, taking a deep breath. I sat down at the base of the tree to contemplate my options.

Well, there always the sun. I could use that to determine my direction. That wasn’t all that helpful, though, considering I had no idea where I was and what way to hike. I racked my brain harder. I could just wander aimlessly until I miraculously stumbled across a creek or a river, and then I could follow it in the hopes that it would lead me to a town or something. I realized this was an even worse idea than the first one. I kicked myself mentally. I was better than this. I had lasted months all by myself. I sure as hell could get myself of this mess. I took a few more moments to gather my thoughts before finally coming to a decision. It wasn’t the best idea, but it definitely was far from the worst.

I had decided, first things first, to find the tallest tree I could, climb to the top, and see if I could spot anything worthwhile. Like I said, it was a start. I moved quietly through the forest, glancing at the height of each and every tree. They were all pretty tall, but my main concern was finding one that I would be able to climb. I finally did, though. It had a low enough branch where I was able to pull myself up. After that, it was easy work climbing slowly from branch to branch. As I got higher and the tree limbs became thinner, I carefully tested each branch with my weight. I got about as high as I could and held onto the trunk and I stood to my feet to look out over the leaves.

I could clearly make out the area I had just come from a ways back and turned instead to look elsewhere. There wasn’t much to see, but the highway was clearly visible in the distance as it snaked through the landscape. I decided that was my best bet. Once I found the highway, it would be easier to navigate myself elsewhere. Plus, I could ransack the abandoned cars for more supplies. Satisfied with this discovery, I slowly began the climb down. Once I got close to the bottom, though, I was faced with yet another problem.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I hissed to myself.

A group of about five or six walkers had gathered at the base of the tree, no doubt drawn here by the sounds I had made climbing, rustling the leaves and causing the limbs to creek. Maybe my smell, too. They were like sharks when it came to sniffing out human meat. I sorted through my brain, trying to come up with any sort of options. Nothing. I was worn out both mentally and physically. I didn’t want to deal with this right now, not any of it. I would wait it out for a few hours. Maybe they would get bored and leave, though I seriously doubted it. Boredom didn’t seem to be on the list of appropriate zombie emotions.

I climbed back up a little ways and settled myself onto what seemed the sturdies and thickest branch. I cradled myself back against the trunk, hoping for dear life I didn’t fall to my death. Then I waited.

There was no real good way to pass the time. I had nothing to do but literally sit there and come up with pointless option after pointless option for my escape. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, which was no doubt only a few hours, I decided my best bet was to wait a little while longer and if they hadn’t gone then, jump from one of the lower branches and run. Maybe pick up a fallen branch and bludgeon them to death with that. The chances of this plan getting me killed were very high, but I was willing to take my chances than spend the rest of my life sitting in a tree. The day began to get very warm and I felt myself dozing off. I kept waking suddenly, though, as I felt myself falling sidewise out of my tree. It seemed I finally did manage to safely fall asleep, though, because when I woke up next the sun was beginning to set. Unfortunately, the walkers were still waiting for me.

I stretched my arms out in front of me, wriggling my fingers before doing the same with my legs, making sure nothing was cramped up. Once I had decided my body was as ready as it would ever be, I decided it was time to put my plan into action. I once again began to descend from the tree, searching for a good place to jump that was not too high and not too close to any of the walkers. I was in the midst of this decision when all of the sudden, one of the walkers crumpled to the forest floor. I stared at in shock. ‘What the hell?’ I thought to myself. Did it just have some sort of fit? A brain malfunction? Another one went down. I squinted my eyes, trying to look closer and that’s when I saw the real reason. An arrow was sticking out of its head.

I felt happiness welling up inside of me as each walker went down and part of my problem was taken care of. That happiness quickly ebbed away though as I remembered there had to be someone shooting those arrows and that could be either good or bad. There was either some good Samaritan wandering around the forest saving girls stuck in trees, or my captors had sent someone after me. I had a feeling it was the latter. I tried to think of a way out of this new predicament, but I found I couldn’t. I had spent all day thinking and devising crazy plans to save my own ass, and with this new obstacle thrown in, I had no idea what to do. The best I could come up with was to just jump now, run, and hope I didn’t get an arrow in the ass. Before I could prepare myself for the jump, though, a voice startled me.

“You gonna git’ down yourself, or do I gotta shoot you outta that tree?” A voice drawled. I couldn’t see where it was coming from though, as I quickly scanned the area.

“I don’t really like either of those options actually.” I answered, more for myself than for whoever this stranger was. I struggled myself into a crouching position, calculating my chances for a getaway.

An arrow suddenly shot into the trunk, missing my head by inches. I let out a startled cry and suddenly felt myself falling backwards out of the tree. I hit a few limbs on the way down, but thankfully I wasn’t high enough up to cause any serious damage. I still hurt when I hit the ground, though, my head smacking hard into the packed in dirt. I groaned, lying on my back and looking up at the tree. I didn’t even have a chance to get up before there was a knee on my chest and an arrow pointed at my head.

“Jesus Christ, I just fell out of a damn tree! Do you think I’m really goin’ anywhere?” I asked, struggling to fight the headache that was threatening to form. I couldn’t make out the face of my captor behind his huge crossbow, but I didn’t really care anymore. At this point, I knew I was done. Suddenly, though, he faltered. The pressure on my chest let up a little bit, although he kept his knee there to prevent me from sitting up.

“Holy shit.” He muttered quietly. “Charlie?”

I froze. My name, he knew my name. I felt my heart speed up in my chest as the man lowered his weapon completely and I found myself staring into a pair of all too familiar blue eyes. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out for a second as I struggled to piece together what was happening. We just stared at each other. Finally, though, I found my voice.

“Daryl fucking Dixon.” The words were barely above a whisper. “Holy shit is right.”