Muted // A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

•Chapter Sixty One•

M U T E D

Season 4

Daryl's Point of View:

I walked around the woods, hunting a rabbit. I lost sight of it for a while, but then I found it again, surprisingly. These goons I'm with, their some tough son's of bitches. They got rules, they got shit that I find...I don't even know honestly...odd. But, I guess bein with these guys is better than bein alone. I don't even know what my next move is; so I wanna take off, find B, maybe Rick- somebody from the prison? Or find Beth? There ain't no sign of her anywhere. I don't know where I'd find her. I don't. Or should I stay here with these guys, leave everyone in the past, forget all about 'em. Move on.

I slowly kneel down to my knees and pointed my crossbow at the rabbit. I waited for it to sit perfectly still to catch my target. Once it stops moving, munchin on something, I release an arrow. I felt something hit my hair and I noticed there are two arrows in the rabbit. I turn around and see the same jackass that wanna bullshit me. Joe, the groups leader, took me in. This guy here, he don't like me, and I don't like him.

"What the hell you doin?" I growl at him.

"Catchin me some breakfast." He shrugs.

"That's mine." I say and approach the rabbit.

"My arrows hit that one first. Cottontail belongs to me." He says.

"Been out here since the sun came up." I argue, tossing his arrow elsewhere.

"You see, the rules of the hunt don't mean jack out here. Now, that rabbit you holdin is claimed, boy. Claimed whether you like it or not. So I was you, I'd hand it over. Now before you get to wishin you ain't never even got out of bed this mornin." He waves his hand for me to hand it over.

"It ain't yours." I growl. He sways back and forth with a smile on his face. I roll my eyes and turn my back on him.

"You know, I'll bet this bitch got you all messed up, Hmm? Am I right? Got you walkin around here like a dead man who just lost himself a piece of tail. Must have been a good'un. Tell me somethin. Was it a good one? Tell you what, I find her, she's mine. I'd like to hit that someday, maybe even right in front of ya to show you what I claimed. But you know what? I'll take 'em out, wouldn't want to survive afterwords, am I right? 'Cause they don't last too long out here." I pull my knife out and turn to cut his throat open, but I felt a hand on my wrist.

"Easy, fellas, Easy." Joe says. "Let's just put our weapons down. See if we can figure out what's really the problem here, huh?" I look at him and see him eyein my rabbit. "Did you claim it?" He asks him.

"Hell yeah." He nods.

"Well, there you go. That critter belongs to Len." Joe says. "So let's have it." I felt him grabbing it and I yank it away, staring at him. "Looks like you may be wanting an explanation. See, going it alone, that ain't an option nowadays. Still, it is survival of the fittest. That's a paradox right there. So I laid out some rules of the road to keep things from goin darwin every couple hours. Keep our merry band together and stress-free. All you got to do is claim. That's how you mark your territory, your prey, your bed at night. One word, claimed." Joe explains. I look him in the eyes and shake my head.

"I ain't claimin nothin." I growl.

"We're gonna teach him, right?" Len asks. Joe doesn't answer and Len looks at him. "The rules say we got to teach him." Joe turns to me.