REVIVAL 𛲕 DARYL DIXON

three ➳ green

The unlikeliest of duos sat in silence as they drove. Daryl was at the wheel, which Ember was relieved for, as with her shaky hands she'd surely crash. He had the windows rolled down, sending icy wind into the interior of the vehicle. Ember considered asking him to close them, as she was freezing, but Daryl resembled a ticking time bomb at the moment. So she sat motionless, arms wrapped around herself, staring at the same spot on the dashboard and willing herself to think of anything except the horrors she'd just endured.

Daryl was relaxed — or as much as you can be for a person who'd just watched their uncle be torn apart by flesh eating walkers. As soon as Ember had uttered the word 'walker' it seemed like the only appropriate thing to call them. They were walking dead people, after all, but she'd rather not call them that. It freaked her out. And thus, the name stuck.

Daryl leant his elbow on the rolled down window, barely aware of the chills running through his body. He had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, trails of smoke drifting behind him in spirals. Of course, he was pissed off about Jess's death, and a part of him mourned. But that part of Daryl was buried away deep inside him. He'd learnt long ago how to conceal his emotions. Emotions made you weak. Which was probably why he couldn't fathom leaving the frail, emotional girl in the passenger seat behind. She was weak; and while Daryl didn't really care about her, he knew that Jess wouldn't have wanted him to leave her to die. He might as well do one last thing for his uncle.

He tried to sort through a plan in his head. He gathered that the girl wouldn't be much use, from the glazed over look on her face. He had to find Merle, he knew that much. He knew that Merle had gone to Fontana to 'deal with some assholes'. He could pretty much get the gist of what Merle was up to, yet he didn't know just how to find him. But he and Merle always stuck together. He had to find him. And they'd go from there.

He finally stole a glance over at Ember, curled up on the passenger seat. For some reason, he'd had to train his eyes onto the road to avoid looking at her. It was just so incredibly hard not to. He noticed she was shaking uncontrollably, and for the first time he realised that the car was absolutely freezing. He wondered why the stupid girl didn't say anything about it being minus degrees in the car, but she didn't look all that clued in.

He rolled up the windows, and with a heavy sigh, leaned into the back of the car, fumbled around for a few seconds, and pulled out a poncho. Without a word, he tossed it at Ember, and trained his eyes back on the road.

➳➳➳

After driving for a few hours without a break, Daryl's eyes began to get tired. He could probably keep going, if need be, but he didn't want to risk passing out in the driver's seat and crashing. Fontana was only around another day's drive away, so if they got an early start in the morning, they should reach Merle by sundown.

They pulled over at a grassy area beside the road, on the outskirts of a vast forest. Daryl had experience with the woods, and it was the best shelter they could find in these times.

"C'mon, time to get out." Daryl rolled his eyes at the sleeping girl. She'd only passed out less than an hour ago, so Daryl guessed she would take pride in herself for staying awake thus long. "Ember."

The girl startled awake, blinking her green eyes rapidly and holding her hands in front of herself. She had instinctively tried to protect herself from harm, and it was for the first time that Daryl noticed how sharp her instincts were. "Ya know, if you keep sleepin' so heavily, you ain't gonna wake up in time to run if you're attacked. Gotta start sleepin' with one eye open."

"Where are we?" Ember asked, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn. She was cold, tired and hungry, but she knew Daryl didn't care, and would just be annoyed if she asked for anything.