My Desire - Daryl Dixon (1)

Having Fun With My Daughter

Chapter 5

After some time of watching the kids play, all of a sudden, we all heard a voice coming from the radio...

"Hello, base camp? Can anybody hear me?" someone asked.

Hearing this, we all ran over to listen closer.

"Base camp this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" he asked.

"Hello, hello. Reception is bad on this end, repeat, repeat," Dale said, answering T-Dog.

"Shane is that you? We're stuck here. We're trapped in a department store," T-Dog said.

"He said they're trapped," Shane said.

"We're surrounded," T-Dog said.

T-Dog then began to break up and we could no longer hear him that well.

"T-Dog repeat that last. Repeat," Dale said.

Just then, there was dead silence. T-Dog was no longer there.

"He said the department store," Lori said.

"I heard it too," Dale said.

"Shane-" Lori said before Shane interrupted her.

"No way. We do not go after them, we do not risk the rest of the group, you all know that," Shane said.

"Why don't I go then?" I asked.

"No. No one is risking there life for them," Shane said.

"So we're just going to leave her there?" Amy asked.

"Look Amy, I know that this is not easy," Shane said.

"She volunteered to go, to help the rest of us," Amy said.

"I know, she knew the risks, right? See she's trapped, she's gone. So we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do," Shane said.

"She's my sister, you son-of-a-bitch," Amy said before walking off.

"She's right. You are a son-of-a-bitch," I said.

I then walked with Alicia back to the children's table before letting her draw a picture. As she began to draw her picture, I began to think about what was just said before Alicia saw my distracted face and said...

"What is it mum?" Alicia asked.

"Nothing baby," I said as I stroked her hair and let her get back to her drawing.

"Is it about the other group in the city? Are you thinking about going after them?" Alicia questioned.

"Maybe not this time but if I needed to go away, would you be okay here with everyone else?" I asked.

"Of course mum," Alicia said.

"You remember what I taught you with your knife?" I asked.

"Yeah," Alicia answered.

"Can you prove it?" I asked.

"Of course mum," Alicia answered before getting up from the table.

I followed her lead before she said...

"Which tree should I choose?" Alicia asked.

"Follow your gut," I said.

Alicia then got out her knife and began to walk past a few trees before finally stopping at one. She began to look at it for a while before finally taking a dozen steps back from the tree and getting ready to throw the knife.

"Good choice. Now, let me mark the tree so you know which part to hit," I said before walking over and using a red marker to mark a small dot on the tree.

Once I did this, I walked over to Alicia and said...

"Okay, hit the target," I said.

Alicia then threw the knife right at the target, getting it a hundred per cent accurate before I said...

"Wow kid, you really are my daughter," I said.

"I've got your aim," Alicia said.

"Yes you have. Now, if you can hit that target, then you can definitely hit and kill a walker," I said.

"Am I going to use a gun?" Alicia asked.

"I'll give you back your gun when it's the real thing but for now, just use your knife. Even if you have a gun, eventually you'll run out of ammo. At least with a knife, you won't have to worry about running out of anything. Just make sure that you keep your knife safe," I explained.

"Got it mum," Alicia said.

"How did I get so lucky to have a ten year old just as strong and brave like you?" I asked.

"Because you are, mum. It was all you," Alicia said.

I smiled at this before saying...

"Keep practicing," I said before walking off to the children's table so I could see what Alicia was drawing.

As I looked at the drawing, I suddenly realized what she had drawn. It was of our family. Me, Alicia, Jason, Caroline and Mitch. Well, she wrote 'dad' to symbolise Mitch as she never met him. He died when I was a few months pregnant. However, despite not knowing him, Alicia still thinks about him. She doesn't think too deeply about him but she still knows who he was. Honouring his memory. I began to smile at this drawing before sitting down at the table and watching Alicia throw her knife at the tree over and over again...