Unattainable (A Daryl Dixon love story)

29

The lone man continued to fire at them as they took cover behind the trees. “Calm down” he told her as he readied his crossbow and fired it straight at the shooter, killing him instantly.

They began walking toward the building again, this time with their weapons drawn and ready.

The door of the building began to open slowly. They all took cover in the vegetation. A heavyset man was using his back to open the door. He was talking to someone inside, blissfully unaware of the corpse just feet away.

He seemed jolly, even in this mess of a world he kept a gleeful glow. He still was leaning on the door, keeping it open, talking to someone inside.

Then he turned around.

The look on his face and the sound he made was forever haunting.

He fell to his knees. He was crying. It was hard to watch. “Who did this?!” he yelled. They didn’t even breathe a response.

“Who was it?! You have to the count of five to reveal yourself now and we’ll take it easy on you…” he had to pause because couldn’t hold back his sobs “if you wait… we’ll find you and kill you a thousand times over.”

“What do we do?” Garrett hysterically whispered. “I’m gonna go-“ Daryl began. “No you’re not. They will kill you” Pepper breathed.

“One.”

“If I don’t go he’ll kill all of us” he said lowly. “No” she said, grabbing his arm.

“Two.”

“I’ll be fine; I know what I’m doing.”

“Three.”

“I won’t let you go.”

“Four.”

“Hold her down.”

He popped up and out of the bushes with his hands up. Pepper went to run after him but both Glenn and Garrett pinned her down. She struggled and tried to scream for him, but Glenn covered her mouth. “You need to calm down” Garrett whispered, restraining her arms.

Daryl’s POV

“Are you alone?” the guy called to me. I responded with a yeah, keeping my hands up. “Are you armed” he called again, raising his gun. “Of course I am” I called back.

It sounded worse than how I wanted it to, but at this point I couldn’t be in any deeper.

I was getting closer and closer to the bastard. Once I was within an arm’s reach he said “Don’t try anything stupid” and grabbed my arm and began to lead me into the store. There were many ways to respond, but I figured I’d keep my mouth shut.