Stray // Daryl Dixon

Every Bit

It was a new day, the sun was beating down on us hotter than any other day we've experienced so far. The Georgian heat was no joke. Glenn and I were currently retrieving water from one of the farm's main wells. My jeans were sticking to my legs and my feet were burning up in my combat boots, but they were the few clothes I still had. Maggie was nice enough to lend me a couple of her tank tops though.

"So what's going on between you and the farmer's daughter?" I asked Glenn, a smile creeping onto his face.

"What nothing-- nothing is going on," he shook his head.

"You know you're a terrible liar," I laughed. He still didn't say anything. "She's attractive," I spoke again.

"Yeah, well you're attractive, doesn't mean I like you," he looked up at me, pulling up the last of our buckets of water.

"Wow, thanks for the backhanded compliment," I giggled.

"To be honest, I don't know what's going on with her. It's like one minute she hates me and then when she decides she doesn't she really likes me, I mean really likes me," he raised his eyebrows.

"Okay ew Glenn, I get it."

"And then she's back to hating me again," he paused. "Hey, is it true that women's cycles like all sync up with each other when they spend enough time together or something because it seems like all the women are pretty on edge lately?"

I snorted, "Yeah I wouldn't bring that theory up to her if I were you." He nodded his head. "Who else is acting weird?" I asked, I hadn't noticed anything.

"Well, Andrea seems to always be mad at something, mostly just Dale keeping too close an eye on her."

"Yeah, well I would too, with him constantly breathing down her neck," I said.

Glenn laughed, "Same could be said about Daryl."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, he's always got his eye on you, whether you realize it or not." We now made our way back up to the camp. He was wrong though, Daryl barely paid any attention to me. Wanting to change the subject I asked who else he thought was being strange. "You know what, never mind," he said, shaking his head and turning to walk away.

"Glenn, like I said you're a terrible liar, you have a secret," I said, stopping him. "Come on it's me, you can tell me," I pushed.

He looked around, kicking the dirt under his shoes, "Okay fine, it's Lori. She asked me to make a run into town for her to grab a couple of things."

"What's wrong with Lori?" I asked.

"S--she's pregnant."

I was shocked, not wanting to believe it. My heart sank to my stomach thinking about getting pregnant during a time like this. I felt bad for her and the decision she was gonna have to make.

"Holy shit," I muttered.

"There's one more secret," Glenn said and I raised my head to look at him again. Once Glenn started getting things off his chest, he couldn't stop. "There are walkers in the barn."

"What the fuck?" My bone jumped from underneath my skin when my pail of water smacked against the ground. I hadn't even realized I let go of it. "If you're lying Glenn, that's not funny. How do you know this?" I questioned him.

"I wasn't supposed to know, I snuck in yesterday to meet up with Maggie to... you know... And there had to be at least twenty of them," he explained.

"And you haven't told anyone! Glenn, we've been sleeping here, living here, at any moment they could get out!" I yelled, now taking off into a sprint towards our camp. Rick had to know.

"Scar wait!" he ran after me, "I promised I wouldn't tell. Herschel, he's gonna kick us off the farm if he finds out we know!"

I stopped to look at him, "Glenn I think this is a little more serious than just breaking a promise, this guy is nuts if he's hoarding walkers away in his barn."

Glenn nodded his head, knowing that I had to tell the rest of the group. I was about to run off again, but the deep shout coming from Rick stopped me.

"Walker!" He yelled, his voice echoing over the hills of the paddocks. I watched as Rick, Shane and T-Dawg all sprinted towards us before I turned and saw the one walker limping its way out of the forest, dragging something along with it.

Glenn and I both pulled out our knives knowing a gun was not needed for one walker. We jogged towards it as we were already closer than the group approaching behind us. As we neared I quickly came to realize that it wasn't a walker at all, it was Daryl. He was covered in blood and caked in mud, with three walker ears dangling around his neck like it was a necklace. From the way he was walking he looked to be hurt, maybe his leg or his back from what I could see from his limp. I turned and raised my arms towards the group.

"Don't shoot, it's Daryl! Don't shoot!" I screamed as loud as I possibly could, but I could barely finish my sentence as my voice had been drowned out by the sound of a rifle going off, sending the bullet whizzing right by my head and hitting Daryl. "No! Daryl!" I cried I spun on my heel,  throwing myself onto the ground beside him. I lifted his head into my lap gently, this position feeling all too familiar from that day up on the roof. His eyes were barely open, the bullet had just grazed the side of his head. "Just hold on please, this is not your time to go, I can't lose you too," I said, but he was not coherent enough to hear or understand me. Seconds later he passed out cold.

------

Daryl was lucky that the bullet only grazed the side of his head, he walked away with a nasty gash and a concussion. Although, if you asked him I'm sure he would have preferred to not get shot at by one of his people at all. I made my way up to Herschel's room, where he allowed Daryl to sleep for the night.

"How you feelin'?" I asked as I entered the room, leaning my body weight on the frame of the door. Daryl laid there cradling a pillow.

"About as good as you can feel after gettin' shot in the head," he grunted. He wasn't in the best of spirits since it happened, feeling like his own people were out to get him.

"You know, Carol keeps talking about what you went through for her little girl, how appreciative she is of you," I spoke up.

"I didn't do anything that Shane or Rick wouldn't have done," he huffed, uncomfortable hearing about how someone was grateful for him.

"I know, you're every bit as good as them," I said truthfully. He rolled over and actually looked at me.

"You remember what you said to me, right before I blacked out?" he asked.

"You heard that?"

"You said you couldn't lose me too," he said, "and what I'm saying back is there isn't anything that's gonna kill me." He repeated my words back to me.

I smiled, "Breakfast is ready, come on."

I hurried down the stairs knowing that Glenn was waiting for me. After Daryl got shot we agreed that it wasn't the time to bring up the barn, but we decided that when everyone was together for breakfast he would have to break the news. They had a right to know, for all of our safety. I sat down on an upside-down bucket and Carol handed me a plate of eggs. Not too long afterwards Daryl made his way from the house, taking a seat on a chair. I now eyed Glenn, he looked back scared. I just nodded my head to say that it was okay and he got up to make his announcement. It was dead silent at the moment, the only sound you could hear were the birds in the trees and the scrapes of plastic forks against paper plates.

"Umm guys," Glenn called out, his voice shook. Some people looked and some continued eating. "So, the barn is full of walkers," he clapped his hands together. Every single person now stopped what they were doing.