Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

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I don't know how far we were from this Terminus place, but Michonne and Carl have made the trek into a game, seeing how long they could stay on the rails. Winner gets to pick a candy bar. "I thinks we got about a day's worth of water left. We're lucky it's cooled off quite a bit, but..." Rick trailed off when he noticed I was the only one listening.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Winning a bet." Carl answered, a smirk on his face.

"In your dreams." Michonne shot back.

"I'm still on." Carl swung at Michonne in an attempt to knock her off the rail, only it messed up his balance instead of hers.

Michonne chuckled. "You spoke too soon, wise guy."

Rick walked closer. "This might go on a while. Maybe we can speed this up."

"Yeah, you're right. Shouldn't be fooling around. We should probably-Carl!" She yelled, swinging her hand at Carl. However it backfired and she fell off. I chuckled at Carl's smug look and Michonne's defeated one.

"I won." Carl smiled, holding out a hand. "Pay up." She sighed, pulling out two candy bars, a Big Cat and a Cruncho. She was trying to hide the Big Cat, holding the Cruncho well in sight in hopes of Carl taking that one. "Is that really the last Big Cat?" He asked.

Carl lifted his hand, grabbing the Big Cat. "Oh, come on." Michonne whined.

"Hey, but you said winners choice." Carl smiled.

"Okay, take it, it's yours." She tossed the Cruncho back into her bag. "You won it fair and square."

Carl broke the bar in half, holding it out for Michonne. She looked at him with a small smile. "Come on, we always share."

"Fork it over." She smiled, taking it from him and tossing the wrapper on the ground. Rick and I smiled at their interaction, and we were back on our way.

~*~

"How hungry are you, scale of 1 to 10?" Rick asked us.

"15." Carl said.

He looked to Michonne. "28." Michonne smiled.

Rick looked at me with his brow raised. "30."

He chuckled. "Yeah. Well, it's been a while. I'm gonna go check the snares."

"Can I go with you?" Carl asked.

Rick smiled. "Well, how else are you gonna learn?"

Carl smiled and stood up. Rick started kicking dirt onto the fire to put it out. "Hey, you guys, too." Rick said, pointing to both of us.

We stood up and I smiled down at Faith. How old was she now? Two weeks I think. We left our makeshift camp and made our way to the path. "We'll stay another day or two. Get some more rest."

"Finish healing up?" Michonne asked.

Rick nodded. "I'm almost there."

"We're close now, right?" Carl asked.

"To Terminus?" Carl nodded. "We are."

"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?"

"What would we tell them?" I asked.

""Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done. Are we gonna tell them the truth?"

Rick hesitated before answering. "We're gonna tell them who we are."

"But how do you say that? I mean...who are we?"

Rick looked at Carl, not knowing how to answer his question. The conversation was interrupted by a walker, snarling at us as it stumbled through the woods. Michonne pulled her sword out, chopping its head off with ease.

~*~

"There you go!" Rick said when he came upon the snare, untying the small rabbit. "It's a small one. It'll do." He shoved the rabbit in his bag. "So, this is just a simple slipknot. Tie one on both ends, then you tighten one side to a branch. Now, you see how the ground here is sort of like a funnel shape?"

"It's a trail?" Carl asked.

Rick nodded. "That's right. That's where you wanna set the noose. So you hide it with leaves. Then you put sticks all around it so any animals going by have to run this way right into the trap." Rick slipped his hand through the knot and pulled so it wrapped tightly around his wrist.

"Help! Somebody help!" We heard a man yelling from the distance.

Carl stood up and ran. "Carl!" Rick yelled. "Carl, stop! Carl!"

We chased after Carl, catching him by the edge of the woods. Rick grabbed Carl around the waist and pulled him behind a tree just as he was about to shoot. "We can't help him." He whispered. The man was yelling and screaming as the walkers tore into him, ripping half his face off.

One of the walkers noticed us, causing the others to notice us as well. "We gotta go." Michonne grabbed my arm, making sure I kept up as we ran onto the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, there were more walkers feasting on a body laying across the tracks.

Michonne, Rick and Carl surrounded me, pulling out their weapons. I felt completely useless. I pulled my knife out and kept Faith pressed tightly to my chest, covering her ears with my hand. They took the walkers out quickly and we were back to running.

~*~

It didn't take very long to lose them, all we had to do was cut through the woods, finding a road on the other side. "Thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way. Maybe even a store. There's gotta be some food around here somewhere."

"Hey, look." Carl said, staring down the road. There was a car sitting there, too damaged to drive, but it would make for a good shelter for the night. We made sure it was secure and Michonne killed a walker laying on the side of the road, most of its body stuck to the pavement.
I laid a sleeping Faith down in the backseat, glad to be able to give my back a break.

Later that night, Michonne, Rick and I sat around the small fire while Carl and Faith slept soundly in the car. "That was one small rabbit." Rick said.

I shrugged. "It was still food."

Michonne nodded. "She's right. Got to hand it to the thing. It travelled well."

Rick and I chuckled. "Have you noticed that's all we talk about anymore? Food. I forgot what this feels like."

"Me, too." Michonne said, poking the fire. "I hope we're able to forget again soon."

Rick nodded. "We're close. Just gotta make it through another day." Rick stomped out the fire. "If folks there are taking people in, they have to be strong. They have to have a system."

"I wonder if the whole thing's legit."

I nodded. "Yeah, what if they're gone?"

There was a sound in the woods and the three of us were on our feet in a second. When nothing came of it, we relaxed, but I kept a gun and my knife out just in case. "We let people in." Rick continued.

"We did." Michonne nodded. "So did the Governor." I shivered at the name.

Rick nodded. "Yeah, it's always the same, isn't it? Don't get to know until we know. Maybe this place isn't even there anymore."

I froze when I heard a gun cock. "Oh, dearie me." A man had a gun to Rick's head suddenly, and we were surrounded. "You screwed up, asshole. You hear me? You screwed up."