Daring Dixon (A Daryl Dixon fanfiction)

Chapter 53

When I woke up the next morning, neither Daryl no Merle were around. This scared me a little, but about ten minutes later they came through the door with a box of food each. I recognized them as the boxes from the back of the car.

"They wandered off?" I asked.

"Most of them. Those that were left our now out lying on the pavement," Daryl replied.

"Good. I know we need the gas but I think we should take the car today. We can't risk getting attacked by a herd on foot," I told them. Merle grunted in agreement but there was no sign of agreement or disagreement from Daryl.

"We oughta get sometin' to eat an' then get out there," Merle suggested. I nodded, grabbed some oatmeal, and found a pan, then proceeded to make myself some on the stove. When it was finished, Merle looked at me expectantly, like he thought I would give him some. I gestured to the pan, shrugging, silently telling him to get off his lazy ass and make some for himself. He huffed loudly and sauntered over to make himself some breakfast.

Daryl stood back, taking in the whole scene. I could tell he wasn't sure how to react to the fact that Merle hadn't ripped my throat out yet. I wasn't exactly nice to Merle, but I wasn't as harsh as I had been the other night either. I told it to Merle like it was. And he did the same to me.

I sat down on the couch after adding a little brown sugar that I found in the cupboard to the oatmeal. It was so nice to have real food again. Not that corn and olives weren't real foods, but they just didn't mix. Oatmeal was warm and inviting. It could almost forget what was going on outside the safety of these walls. Almost.

After Merle and Daryl had eaten their fill and I had finished my bowl as well, we grabbed the same weapons we had taken out yesterday and assembled a backpack full of food in case we were gone all day.

Full and ready to go, we went down the stairs to the back of the store where we had come in the night before. The filing cabinet was in place over the door, and Merle moved it aside, then flung the door open so we could kill any of the walkers that happened to be near it.

One female walker stumbled towards the now open door, but before she could take more than one step, she had an arrow sunk into her brain. I nodded to Daryl and he slowly crept out the door, made sure the coast was clear, and then signaled for Merle and myself to follow him.

We did, and it didn't take long to get out to the car and slip inside. I slid into the drivers seat again, which I could tell wasn't bothering Daryl as much as it had the day before.

We explored the other side of the small town, moving from house to house if it looked promising. We emptied lots of cupboard, and found a raccoon or two, but by mid afternoon, our trunk was full. Our next task was finding the apartments.

And it didn't take long after that. It was a small town, after all. We would've found them much sooner had we not been looking through the houses.

The apartments were set back from the town, surrounded on three sides by trees. There were four buildings. It was close enough to the town that we could get what we needed but just far enough away from the center of anything that I didn't think walkers would be a problem.

"We need to go look around. Should we split up?" I asked. "We'd cover more ground."

"That may be true but if something happens to one of us the others wouldn't know," Daryl reasoned.

"Alright then. We'll stay together. In the same building at least," I told them. They nodded.

We slowly made our way inside. We could hear something moving around, but we didn't know where, or what, it could be coming from. We started at the first apartment and cleared it. Then the next. And the next. It was a bit boring.

"Look, we're not having any action here, why don't we split up? Each of us take a apartment. It'll go quicker. We'll be out of here and back home before we know it," I suggested.

"I'm not so sure that's-" Daryl started.

"C'mon little brother, ya ain't scared ta go off by yerself now are ya?" Merle asked. Daryl shot him a dirty look.

"It's settled then. I'll take apartment 7. you guys choose which ones you want and then find another. We'll keep the doors open as a sign that we've been through it. When we're all through here we'll move onto the next building. Let's get out of here before dusk so we can get back to where we stayed last night and head back first thing in the morning," I told them. Merle nodded and Daryl grunted in agreement.

We split up then. I took apartment 7. It was clean, like it hadn't been touched even before all hell broke loose. There was a couch cover over the couch and despite the fact that it had been months since everything had started, nothing seemed dusty. And nothing was out of place either.

A photo on a stand in the bedroom made me realize that this house had belonged to an older woman, probably in her seventies. A look in the closet confirmed this. I swept through the kitchen and bathroom and found nothing but a large bloodstain on the rug in the bathroom. But as long as there were no walkers, I was happy.

On the way through the living room to exit the house, movement caught my eyes through the window. I walked to it to get a closer look, and my jaw dropped and my eyes widened in fear. The complex was surrounded by walkers. And the moans were coming from down the hall.

Hello readers! I know it's been a week since I updated and I am so sorry! But school has been hectic and so has the last week because of my mom's health. But I'm not going to get into that on here because it's kinda personal.

So, because I fly by the seat of my pants as a writer and rarely plan things out, I'm just now announcing that the next chapter will possibly be the last chapter. There may be another chapter after that but I'm thinking the next one is the last. But have no fear! I have the first chapter of the sequel written and it's burning a hole in my mind! Ugh! I can't wait for you guys to read it!

So, any predictions? I love to hear them from you because you always have the best and aren't too off usually with them! So lay it on me! Tell me what you think in the comments! Don't be shy!

Just a reminder that although the sequel does follow the characters of this story, it is told in a very 3rd person/omniscient perspective. As I said, I'd love to be in Rosaline's head for another whole story but it works better if I have it in another perspective. So.... yeah. :-)

Okay guys, I guess that's it for now!  I hope you liked the chapter! And don't forget to comment your predictions below!

And, as always, don't forget to vote, comment, and fan!