Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

20

I stood behind the bar with Glenn, keeping one hand on one of my guns, the other wrapped around my machete. The men sat down, pouring drinks. "I'm Dave." The skinny one introduced. He pointed at the heavier man at the bar, who was eying me with a look I knew too well. "That scrawny looking douchebag there is Tony."

Tony chuckled. "Eat me, Dave."

"Hey, maybe someday I will." I wasn't sure if he was joking. "We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was."

Everyone was silent, except for Glenn, of course. "I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people."

"Rick Grimes." I said nothing.

"How about you two? Have one?"

"I just quit." Hershel said.

"You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend."

"His name's Hershel. He lost people today, a lot of them." Rick spoke.

"I'm truly sorry to hear that. To better days and new friends. And to our dead, may they be in a better place." They all drank, Glenn hesitating only slightly.

Dave looked at me, noticing my hands on my weapons. "We aren't gonna hurt you, especially not when you're packing like that." He pointed at my machete, knife, and my three guns.

I didn't respond, only narrowing my eyes. "She's had it rough. She's got trust issues." Rick answered for me, eyeing Dave's piece tucked into his belt.

"Not bad, huh?" Dave pulled it out, showing Rick. "I got it off a cop." I watched Rick tense, his face hardening.

"I'm a cop."

Dave holstered his gun. "This one was already dead." His chuckle made that hard to believe. Rick's head was cocked to the side, a tell that he didn't trust these guys and neither should we.

"You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia." Ricks voice was low, seemingly dangerous.

"It feels like we're a long way from anywhere."

"Well, what drove you south?" Rick asked.

Dave smiled. "Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped 30 pounds in sweat alone down here."

"I wish." Tony commented.

"No, first it was D.C. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing."

"One guy told us there was the Coast Guard sitting in the Gulf sending ferries to the islands."

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country, Kansas, Nebraska."

"Nebraska?" Glenn asked, confused.

"Low population, lots of guns."

"Kinda makes sense."

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid?" Glenn shook his head. "A reason they call 'em flyover states." They chuckled and I noticed the hesitation in Dave's look before he spoke again. "How about you guys?"

"Fort Benning, eventually." Rick said, lying through his teeth.

Dave shook his head. "I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but...we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by Lamebrains."

Glenn's face fell. "What, Fort Benning is gone, are you for real?"

"Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grad ahold of you when you sleep."