Savage World •••Daryl Dixon•••

Sunrise

Daryl sat on the rooftop of yet another house in the string of them that the group had been jumping along like frogs all winter. It had been almost three months since they were forced off the farm, since he lost her. He watched the sun claw its way up through the trees and couldn't help thinking that Asher would love a sight like this. The moment of beauty in the world of shit and death and blood. That was his world, that was his entire life. Until he found her. She was the rising sun in his shithole life of blood and mud.

And she was gone.

A small trio of walkers shamble into the clearing around their home for the night. He sighed and slid down the rooftop to land on the small patio he used to crawl up there initially. Opening the door into what he was assuming to be a studio of a sort, he skulked into the lower levels and found the group huddled together in the living room. All Daryl had to do was clear his throat and everyone was instantly awake and ready for an attack.

"Time to get goin again." They were packed almost instantaneously and on the move before the sun could fully clear the treetops.

"Where's the closest town?" They stopped, Rick and Daryl holding a map open over the hood of a car as the others made a rudimentary semicircle around them and Lori who looked like she was carrying a watermelon under her shirt she was so far along in her pregnancy. Ready to pop at any moment.

"Okay, we left Haralson a few weeks ago and headed northeast right? We've just been making a great big circle all winter! We can't keep going like this. Lori can't keep going like this. I think we'll find a place for them to hide out while you and me go scouting north and northeast for somewhere to try and settle for a bit. At least until the baby is born." Daryl numbly nodded along with his plan. He didn't much care anymore, but a home base meant he could start to organize his currently sporadic search for Asher.

"Sounds good to me." Rick nodded and they picked another house not too far down the road. After he told the group what was going on, the two set off down the road looking for something more permanent than a rundown shack on the side of the road. The cop had been keenly aware of how lifeless the Dixon was, how uncaring he seemed since the fall of the farm. It worried him, both for the group and for Daryl himself.

"Daryl, can we talk?" The man shrugged and kept telling up the road, eyes peeled for residence and walker alike.

"Ain't got much of a choice, right?" Rick dipped his head at his jab towards him about how he treated them at the beginning of the winter.

"This ain't a democracy."

"I'm worried about you, Daryl. You've been distant since the farm. I mean I can guess why." The hunter sighed and stopped walking to turn and look back at the cop behind him.

"Then why are we talkin 'bout this if you already know." Daryl felt a cough claw it's way up his throat, but he pushed it away with a low grunt. He didn't have time to be sick. He had people to look after and a daughter to find.

"I just want you to take into consideration that she may not have left the farm. Not alive anyway." Daryl ground his teeth in annoyance and turned his back to keep walking without him. "Daryl please, I'm not saying it's a certainty, I just don't want to see you hurt yourself looking for someone you may never find again."

"I'll find her. Alive." Daryl stopped walking when he spotted a large prison down the ridge, the brightening sunlight highlighting the huge fences and penned in walkers.

"What makes you so sure?" Rick joined him at the top of the crest, his eyes locking on the prison like Daryl's. "Woah."

"Because she's a Dixon. That's a damn shame, ain't it?" He motioned at the prison with his crossbow, turning to see Rick and his brain whirling a mile a minute as he formulated some wild concoction of a plan.

"Maybe not." They returned to the house and Rick explained how he planned to take the prison. The group agreed seeing as he was the leader, and they moved on the prison. It didn't take them long to close off and clear out a courtyard inside the gates.

"We haven't had this much space since the farm!" Carol sighed happily and held out her arms while spinning like she was flaring out a dress. Daryl felt his lip twitch upwards at the woman, this is the happiest she's been since Sophia went into the woods and never came back out. He waited for the group to settle in for the night before hefting his things and making his way to the gates leading back out into the woods.

"Daryl, where are you going?" Rick whispered as he caught the man by his elbow before he could get too far.

"I told you I'd find her."

"They need you too, Daryl." The said man scanned the fence line and looked back at Rick with a look saying that was a lie. The cop tilted his head at the redundancy since they were inside a prison of all places. "Okay, that sounded stupid. But you won't be able to find her in the dark. All you'll find is walkers and disappointment. Wait a little longer."

"Why? So you can play dictator some more?" Rick bit his lip and looked at the ground. He never wanted it to be like this, but he needed to keep these people safe. These were his people now, and if he had to be a tyrant of their lives to ensure they survived, then so be it.

"I'm not asking you to leave her behind. I'm asking you to wait, just until morning. Please, Daryl." The Dixon grumbled under his breath and shifted on his feet in debate. Asher needed him, and he needed her.

She needs to be found.

But Rick was right, he'd get nothing done in the dark. Nothing but get himself lost or killed. As hard as it will to be, he had to keep a calm head and think this one through. If he got himself killed out there, Asher would have nobody left and he couldn't leave her alone.

"Fine. But if you ever try to stop me again, I'll kill you where you stand." Rick nodded and let go of his arm, the hunter shuffling his gear and shuffled his feet.

"Thank you, Daryl." He grunted and and made his trip over to the overturned bus to use it like a guard post. Using the tires as footholds he clambered up onto the bus and turned his back on the fire the others crowded around. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her smiling face and he could swear he heard that dreadfully girly nickname on every breeze that whispered through the trees.

"Until sunrise."