Unattainable (A Daryl Dixon love story)

5

They were greeted by two men, who opened the gates, one very old one and a younger man with noticeably blue eyes. The younger one spoke up “Who are these people?” Glenn told him the story, immediately after he went up to Jonah and stuck his hand out for him to shake “I’m Rick and that’s Hershel. You and your people are welcome here as long as you like.”

Jonah put down the deer and shook Rick’s hand “Thank you sir, I’m Jonah, that’s my wife Josephine, and Tricia, Tyler, their mom Patty, Amanda and Garrett, Thomas, and our leader Pepper.”

“Your leader?” Rick said, immediately looking to Pepper and eyeing her as Daryl did before. “Well” Rick continued “why don’t we get y’all situated and me, you, and Hershel can discuss a few things later.” She nodded and he led them to the center of the prison where everyone was waiting and watching.

Rick introduced them to everyone and showed them where they were to sleep. Pepper thought it was funny. Sleeping in prison cells was the last thing any of them ever wanted to do, but now it was the only thing they really wanted to do.

The mood was automatically lighter. Glenn and Maggie were talking with Amanda and Garrett, the twins were playing with Carl while Patty and Lori talked, Jonah and Josse where with Hershel and Beth, and even Carol and Thomas where were playing checkers. Pepper was sitting outside on a bench with Rick waiting on Hershel to finish up talking.

They both watched as their two groups mixed so well, but someone was missing. Pepper looked around until she saw Daryl in the shade by himself cleaning his arrows. She stared at him for a bit before turning back to Rick who was already looking at her. “He’s quiet sometimes” he told her, making her smile. Soon Hershel was done and now with them. And the interview began:

“First I’d like to ask you how many Walkers have you killed?” Rick began. She had to think about this one. “it never really occurred to me to count, but I’d say less than 50 but more than 20.” Rick looked to Hershel, then back to her “How many people have you killed?” This one she knew, she had to take out a whole camp against her will, and she remembered the faces of everyone she brought down. “I’ve killed 7” she said looking at the both of them. “Why?” She knew this one too. “About three days ago, back when my group was bigger and being directed mostly by my dad we came across a camp. There’s a place in the woods where there’s a bare patch big enough for a group of eighty. There was twenty-one and a half of us, a girl was pregnant, and we needed somewhere to stay. My dad was an army general so he was good with tactics. He was already laying out a plan of attack when i suggested asking them if we could join them. My father thought that was a horrible idea, it even angered him, he told me in a blind rage to give everyone a gun and commence to charge the camp… we killed them all, losing more than half of our own people.”