Greek Tragedy | Daryl Dixon

Chapter 15 | It's Perfect

In the following week, Cassandra had made up with the Greene's and Glenn but still gravitated towards Daryl in most situations. She trusted him. With the coming of winter came the cold, forcing the group to seek warmer clothing and leave their shelter in hopes of finding something more substantial to wait out the storms. Rick was skeptical at first, but the hunters managed to convince him they could see the signs; clouds were building in the west as the wind swept them towards the group's location and gained force and chill with each passing day. So, with a little resistance from Lori – who was finally beginning to show a little baby bump – the group reluctantly packed up their gear and set off with the fuel they had managed to scavenge from a nearby town a few days prior. 

As the convoy headed down the road, bare-branched forests flanking either side, Daryl and Cassandra sped ahead on their bikes. They dodged the occasional walker, looked at the road signs and kept an eye out for anywhere that might seem suitable. By nightfall, they had still found nowhere to call home for the winter and the frigid bite of darkness was closing in again. The group made camp at an abandoned gas station for the night and moaned about the loss of the stable. They did their best to cover the smashed in windows with empty shelves but it was hardly enough. At least there was enough food left scattered on the floors for one night. But no fire. That would draw too much attention.

The next morning, as the group shivered through their meagre breakfast of stale protein bars and a box of pretzel sticks, Cassandra and Daryl readied their packs for another day of scouting. They double-checked one another's bags and made sure each was ready for the day ahead like a well-oiled machine. Today, they were going on separate trips.

Given the group's lack of food on top of their need to find shelter, Cassandra was tasked with hunting for the next few days while Daryl continued to scout. The pair were to ride out to the highway intersection and follow the road in different directions from there. They expected to be gone for a day each, at which point they would meet back up at the same intersection and return to the group. Successful or not, they could not risk being away from the group for any length of time.

Cass smiled at Daryl deflatedly and placed a hand on his arm. "When I see you again, Daryl," she murmured their customary farewell before separating for any period of time. Neither the girl nor the man ever considered saying goodbye; they would see the other again soon. Anything else was not an option. 

"When I see you," the hunter replied gruffly before swinging his leg over Merle's bike and revving the engine when Cass did the same. 

Rick came out of the gas station with his coat wrapped tightly at his neck, shoulders hunched against the growing bite of the wind and hands shoved deep into his pockets. 

"Until tomorrow afternoon," he stated without pleasantry. "We can't stay here any longer than that, have to move on before dark tomorrow."

"Got it," Daryl responded, turning to Cass. "C'mon."

And so they rode. At the intersection, Daryl gave her a quick wave before turning north on the highway. So Cass went south, riding only until she found a shallow valley with a small forest straddling a modest river. Hopefully, that would have at least some people game left. 

It was nearing noon when Cassandra reached what used to be a small parking lot with a stile and public walking path leading over the river she had seen from the hill nearby. She dismounted, walking her bike over to the side of the tarmac and covering it with fallen branches and debris after siphoning most of the fule in her tank out into a tin. This she buried nearby so that no one would be able to steal the bike if they found it while she was gone. Noon came and saw the girl finally make her way into the forest to begin setting up some snares where she saw more recently used game trails. By the end, she was nearly an hour's walking into the forest and finally could venture off into the underbrush to pursue larger prey.