Broken Arrows (Daryl Dixon)

7.

Walking Dead Quote of the Day:
"The world we know is gone. But keeping our humanity? That's a choice.
  -Dale Horvath
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Daryl's POV~

    I know I told Devore I'd be back in about 10 minutes, but on my way back to the clearing I see a couple of rabbits. The beans weren't enough to make me full, so I decide to catch at least one of them to cook up. I raise my crossbow and carefully aim at one of the rabbits and shoot. Got it. After the first rabbit went down the second ran into a bush. Moving very slowly, I move closer to the bush until I can see part of the rabbit before shooting it. After shooting both rabbits I grab them and take the arrows out of both of them. I wipe the arrows on my shirt before putting the arrows back on my crossbow and finally heading back. When I get back to the clearing I don't see Devore and the fire is down to embers making it difficult to see anything. I go back to the fire, setting the rabbits next to it and grab some of the extra firewood. Placing the wood into the fire, I blow on the embers to get the fire going again. I stand up to look for Devore and almost trip over something in the process. To my surprise, it's Devore asleep on the ground on some type of bed made of leaves. She's shivering a bit even though she's wearing a jacket and has a blanket covering her. I don't know why she didn't lay closer to fire so she would be warmer. I make my way around the 'bed' to the left side and gently pick her and the blanket covering her up. There is a pillow looking thing laying on the ground so I place her down on the right side near the fire. She must be exhausted because she didn't stir at all when I moved her. After moving her close to the fire and fixing the blanket I grab the rabbits and sit on the log to skin them. After skinning them I place them on a big leaf. I take my water bottle and the pan off the ground and use the water to rinse out the pan. After the pan is 'clean' I cook the rabbits over the fire. The rabbits are finally done cooking and I put each one on a separate plate. I go back to sitting on the log and eat one of the rabbits. I place the other plate down on the other side of the log for Devore later. I eat in silence for awhile before the sound of Devore moving breaks it. She slowly sits up and rubs her eyes, looking around the clearing. I take other plate and hold it out to her. She gets up and takes the plate, sitting down next to me. It's quiet for a few minutes before I speak.

"The walkers on the highway haven't moved very much as of tonight," I inform her. "We might need to camp out here for a couple more days."

"That's fine. Despite the occasional walker and the temperature it is actually quite nice out here." She replies looking up at the stars through the sheltering branches and leaves.

"Well, while we're out here I could teach you some useful skills like hunting, tracking, and how to survive the walkers." I say with a small smile.

"That would be fun. I always went with my dad when he went hunting, but I was never able to shoot anything."  She tells me.

I turn to face her, "Now is the perfect time to start. I'll teach you how to make snares, shoot a crossbow, how to properly skin an animal, and what parts to cook and eat. You've already got a start by knowing how to shoot a gun and use a knife. Plus now you know how to start a fire. Without matches I might add." Devore laughs at my statement. It'll be nice having someone to teach skills I learned when I was young. It helped me survive when I got lost for several days and no one even noticed I was gone. I would teach Sofia all of these skills, but I don't think she's old enough yet. I always made a promise to myself that if I had children I would teach them all that I know. I would love them and never treat them how my parents' treated Merle and I. I made this promise to myself and future kid(s) if I had any before everything went to shit. Now that everything has changed I won't have any kids, not in this world. We talk for a bit longer before I decide I'm going to rest a bit before taking watch.

"I'm going to lie down for a bit." I inform her and lay down on the left side, facing away from the fire. I place a gun next to me just incase there are  more walkers. It's a little cold and the wind keeps getting in through my thin jacket, but I deal with it. The pillow thing along with the 'bed' that Devore made is actually pretty comfortable. Devore lays down near the fire a couple minutes later and I feel something cover me. Looking down at myself I notice I am covered with part of a blanket. I turn a bit to look at Devore. She's facing the fire and I can tell by her deep breathing that she's asleep. I turn back so that I'm facing the woods and lie awake. Not long after Devore lays down she starts to shiver a bit from the cold. I should probably take watch now anyway so I get up, grabbing the gun and my crossbow. I place the rest of the blanket on Devore before putting more wood on the fire. At first I walk around the edge of the clearing, but after awhile I just sit on the log and look into the woods.

Devore's POV~

I hear Daryl get up from where he was laying on the ground and the rest of the blanket is put on me. It causes me to wake up, but I stay laying down and only open my eyes slightly. Daryl spends about the next five minutes walking around the clearing in a circle. I watch him pass my field of vision multiple times before he stops. I turn to face the opposite direction only to see Daryl facing away from the fire and staring into the woods. It seems like with every passing hour it gets colder and colder. I can see Daryl is cold so I get up and grab the blanket off the ground. Walking over to him I place the blanket over his shoulder causing him to look back at me.

"No. Keep it." He tells me and starts handing back the blanket.

"Daryl," I start, "I can tell you are cold, take the blanket. Please." I push his hand and the blanket back.

"I don't want it," he tries handing it back to me again.

"You already have me sleeping by the fire so you can use the blanket." I push it even closer to him.

"You don't need to worry about me." He puts the blanket in my hands this time. Now I'm starting to get annoyed.

"Daryl stop being so stubborn and take the damn blanket. It's the least I can do." I say and place the blanket back across his shoulders. He finally leaves it and I go back to my part of the bed. I lay on my back and look at the sky, neither of us talk after my little 'outburst'.

    "I'm sorry," I start. "I shouldn't have swore at you because of something so stupid."

    "It's okay. I guess I should learn to not be so stubborn." Daryl laughs and I join in.

"So.. why where you alone when I found you?.." Daryl asks me. "If you don't want to talk about it you don't have t0." He adds after seeing my facial expression. This is a hard subject for me to talk about. It hasn't been a long enough mourning period these past couple weeks since everything happened.

"No, it's okay. You should know why I was alone when you found me. I don't want you to think my parents were bad people who just abandoned me." I sit up and look in his direction sadly. I take a deep breath and sit by Daryl before starting my story.