Bleeding Souls (Daryl Dixon)

1. Minor Change

          It has been nearly a month since the world ended. Nearly a month since I've been with Morgan and his son, Duane. We've been living in a house in Rick's neighborhood. When the world was ending, I was on my way to pick up Carl and Lori, but they were already gone. I only hope they got out safe.

          As much as the world has changed, it's no different to me. Other than dead people walking around and people dying left and right. Physically the world has changed for me, but emotionally, it's the same.

          As I'm sitting up stairs, looking out the window, I just let my mind wonder to what my life could have been like if I was more like Rick. If I hadn't been completely different then him. If I had followed in his footsteps. I guess it doesn't really matter anymore considering the world is dead. All of the sudden I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. I look to my right and see Duane opening the door.

          "Hey June. Can I come in?" Duane asks me. I smile at him and wave for him to come over. " What's going on little man?" I ask him. "Dad thinks we may have to go on another run soon. Go little further down the neighborhood. We are getting low on food." Duane tells me. I turn to look back out the window and sigh. I hate putting Duane in danger, but Morgan and I refuse to let the other one go on a run alone. It's too dangerous, we both always say to one another. I turn and look back at Duane and can see in his eyes that he is a little excited about getting out of the house. I understand that. Being locked up in this house really does make you want to go outside. Even with walkers walking everywhere. I smile back at him. "Okay. Let me go talk to your dad." I tell Duane as I'm getting up.

          After I left Duane, I started going downstairs and I heard Morgan packing some weapons. I walked slowly around the corner, careful so Morgan wouldn't hear me. When I finally saw him, cleared my throat. Morgan turned around quickly and was shocked to see me there. "Why do you always sneak up on me?" He asks me smiling. I cock an eyebrow and cross my arms. "The hell are you doing?" I ask him. He turns around and sighs. "I'm doing on a little run. We need things." He tells me as he starts walking towards the door. I run and get in front of him. I put my hand on the doorknob and push him back. "No. We go together. No one goes alone." I tell him with sternly. "Now, let me and Duane get ready, okay?" I ask him. He nods and as I start to walk past him, I grab the backpack full of weapons out of his hands and start to go upstairs. "Can't have you running out on me." I tell him as I start to leave upstairs.

          After I ran upstairs, Duane and I got ready and we all started to head out. We start walking further down the neighborhood. "Why aren't there many walkers today, daddy?" Duane asks his father. Morgan looks down at him. "I don't know son. Maybe they heard something and moved on." Morgan tells Duane. As we are walking down the road, I hear a snarl. I look around and see a walker that is coming out between two houses. "I got it." I tell Morgan and Duane as I pull out my machete. I walk over to it and swing my blade as hard as I could. I watch has the top of its head launches in the air and falls to the ground with a thud. I wipe my blade off on the walkers shirt and start heading back towards Morgan and Duane. After about thirty minutes of walking we finally start seeing some houses we haven't been through yet.

          After about the fifth house, we decided one more will do it. As we are standing in front of the house, I look over at Morgan and huff. "Do you think anything will actually be in here?" I ask him. "I mean, we've been through five houses already and barley got anything." I tell him. He looks over at me and then to Duane. After looking at his son for a good minute, he looks back at me and smiles. "Yeah, I do." He says to me. I let out a little chuckle. "You know for the end of the world, you seem to always be positive." I say to Morgan. He just looks at me and smiles. We start going towards the house. "I'll go first." I tell the boys getting in front of them. I knock on the door and wait for any sound. There is none. I turn the handle, but it's locked. "It's locked. I'm gonna go through a window. Give me a minute." I tell them as I start to run around the house. I go around back and find a yard chair and put it below the window. I finally get the window open and notice that I'm in a kids room. My heart drops to my stomach. Making me feel sick. I stood there in the kids room for a good minute until I saw a box of crackers in the kids floor. That's when I remembered Duane and Morgan out front.