ᴀɴɢᴜɪsʜ » ᴅᴀʀʏʟ ᴅɪxᴏɴ

{14} Poison Ivy

Back at the highway, we explain what happened to Lori and why Shane and Rick hadn't been back yet. Dale listens with his bushy brows narrowed, while  T-Dog held his bandaged arm, leaning up against the R.V., muttering nonsense to no one in particular.

"Why didn't you back me up?!" Daryl snaps at me, his blue crystals glare under his scornful tone.

"Excuse me?" I say, removing hand away from my cheek. my mind is too heavy to deal with this bullshit right now.

"Here they go again," Jodie sighs, shaking her head. Raising my hand to keep Jodie from speaking any additional observations, I step to Daryl with a wrinkled nose and one vein in the middle of my forehead throbs out of frustration.

"You're blaming me? You know, I am tired of being blamed for bullshit. Maybe if you weren't so far ahead, shit could have been dealt with better."

"If you slow asses weren't so slow -"

"We are a group. We stay together, no matter what." I shout back.

"What about you, huh, Lawyer? Supposed to be second in command of the damn group. You let that woman get on that horse with that girl and didn't say a damn thang! Now they're ridin' into the sunset to God knows what."

I'm enraged. His reaction just the same back on the road during our introduction.  What is the point of reaching close to a breakthrough just to allow it to collapse back in?

Dixon steps over me with venomous disdain. He wants to be intimidating. Threatening. Regardless I've had enough of his outbursts. Daryl is like a child throwing a tantrum I stand tall, glaring back up at him with the same attitude.

"You were going to shoot that innocent girl. That's not us. That's not you." I say, not backing down.

Daryl scoffs, turning his back away from me to pace. He then spun around with anger, throwing his hand at me out of frustration, "What the hell you know about me? Nothin'! Why don' you take yer high horses and ride back to the imaginary land ya came from."

"Enough!" Dale scolds. Pushing himself from the side of the R.V., Dale steps in between me and Daryl. Hands raised, and lips thinned into a tight frown. "We've got too much going on here. The last thing we need is to listen to you both bicker over something neither of you could have control over."

Biting the inside of my cheek, I take one last glare towards Daryl before turning my back. Arms crossed over my chest, clenching my jaw. Striding away from the situation before it becomes worse. I want to gouge his eyes out, show him his sour attitude.

"Here's the plan, we go and check out the place. Get with the others and figure something out from here, " Dale says whilst watching me with wariness.

"No, " Carol shuts down the whole idea with one stern gesture. All eyes fall onto her, surprised by her harsh gesture. "We can't just leave. I won't do it." Carol shook her head in disapproval. "We can't leave."

Leaning back against his RV, Dale lowers his head with shame. Plotting what to say, how to say it. With his other hand resting upon his hip, Dale wiggles his lips from underneath his graying beard. "Carol, " Dale says with patience. "The group is split. We're scattered and weak."

"What if she comes back, and we're not here?!" Carol blurts out with frustration. She scans the remaining of us with a delicate stance, brows knitted with fear for her lost daughter. "It could happen." Carol's voice fades as she wipes the tip of her nose.

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea chimed in.

Licking my dry and scabbed lips, I peek a glimpse at Carol. Imagining Sophia climbing that hill only to see the RV and her last chance of survival is gone. She'd just wander off, or stay put. Which is just as dangerous as wandering.  Alone, and helpless. Walkers will surely get to her if they hadn't done so already.