T U C K E R × twd

eight

.eight
AND WE'RE WALKING

DAD HAD WOKEN ME up early in the morning, the sun just rising, to take me out hunting with him. We left as everyone was starting to wake up, dad telling Rick about what we were doing. As we walked into the woods, dad stopped me and pulled a gun out of his belt. Without saying anything, he showed me the gun and shoved it into my belt before nodding and starting to walk again. To start off with, dad would tell me to stay back and be quiet as he used his crossbow to hunt squirrel after squirrel. I watched my dad as he hunted, mentally taking notes of how he stalked silently through the trees, planning before he took his steps. He kept his breathing even when he spotted another squirrel, raising his crossbow up to his eye and slowly took his aim. Following the squirrel with the crossbow, he then took one long breath in before quickly releasing it as he pressed the trigger.

The arrow thumped into the tree, trapping the now dead squirrel onto the bark. I walked over to go get it as dad reloaded and prepped the line so he could tie it on. I held the arrow with one hand, the other pushing against the tree, and pulled it out, catching the squirrel as it fell to the floor. Walking back to dad, I threw him the squirrel and fiddled with the arrow in my hands. Upon reaching my dad, I slid the arrow back into its place on the crossbow and stepped next to him.

"Let's head back, this is enough" dad said, turning around to walk back towards the group.

Dad passed me the line of squirrels to carry as he kept his crossbow in front of him, ready to pull up in case of walkers. We spoke quietly, talking about our next plan of action when we returned to the group. I was cautious about Abraham still, not liking the way we met, and how he seemed to be set on getting this Eugine dude to Washington. I felt like he wouldn't hesitate to abandon us if it meant that he would complete his mission, and this worried me. When we stepped through the trees back to the group, everyone pulled their guns up ready to shoot at us. We both froze, at the sudden sound of the guns cocking.

"We surrender." Dad joked, holding his arms up. I chuckled as I wiggled the squirrels in the air when my hands were raised. Everyone sighed and relaxed instantly, putting their guns down and starting to walk towards us. Rick walked up to dad and I and dad looked to him as they conversed about the strange rustle we heard last night "No tracks. No nothing."

"So whatever you heard last night" Rick commented, waiting for dad to finish his sentence.

"It's more what I felt." dad grunted, "If someone was watching us, there would have been something."

It was a strange thing that even dad couldn't find any tracks, he was known for finding them and the conditions were perfect for him. I looked behind me, frowning at how everyone was so spread out. Being spread out made us vulnerable, made it easy for someone to pick us off one by one and if the case was that we were being watched then we needed to stick together. Looking back in front of me, I decided it was probably best to tell Rick and dad about my worries.

"We need to stay close, just in case"

Rick nodded his head and turned around, walking down to the end of the line. Dad glanced at me with an unreadable face, I frowned at him as he shook his head and adjusted his crossbow strap. He wanted to talk with me about what I refused to talk to him about, hell even think about, but obviously felt too awkward to start the conversation and didn't want me to get angry at him.

"How are you feeling?" he finally asked as we walked, looking down at me.

"Better, dad." I muttered, moving the line of squirrels onto one of my shoulders. When I looked up at him I got a sudden shift in my thoughts, his concerned face made me think about how much fear I inflicted onto him when I got lost. Glenn's words echoed around my head, about how dad almost died to try to find Sophia and me. "Thank you"