The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 54 - Have Faith

I sat in silence over the freshly covered grave for some time, waiting until I saw that the others were about ready to go. When they looked to be finished I began to stand and made my way down to the truck, carrying two items. I put the shovel in the back and then the prosthetic leg.

"What is that?" Martinez asked.

"He doesn't need it anymore. Someone else might." Was all I said and aside from the somewhat disturbed and shocked look on his face he let it be. "Sun will be up in a few hours."

"We're all ready. Nothing's left inside." I glanced into the back of the truck to double check and saw all the bags including the guitar and my black leather one. I grabbed it though and put it over my shoulder, not particularly wanting to part with it just yet.

"There's one more thing."

"Mmmm?"

"I saw something up there." I nodded back to my father's grave on the hill. "Across the paddock, that might come in handy. It'll make us burn through more fuel, but we'll still have enough to make it back to the prison and on a bit further and when we do run out she'll be useful."

"She?" Luke questioned before Martinez could.

"Reverse the truck back down to the shed and hitch up the horse float. I got a horse to catch."

Third Person

Beth and Daryl sat around their camp fire for the night, the both of them sitting as far apart as they could get, this being Daryl's doing as he stared into the flame not speaking or really moving at all.

Beth stared at him for a while before finally speaking.

"We should do something." Daryl's eyes flicked up, but he didn't really move. "We aren't the only survivors. We can't be. Rick, Michonne, they could be out here. Maggie and Glenn could have made it out of A Block." Daryl looked back to the fire. "They could of!" Daryl remained silent and Beth got to her feet in frustration. "You're a tracker. You can track. Come on! The sun will be up soon. If we head out now we can..." She wasn't sure what. Find them was the end of that sentence, but there was enough doubt in her mind to stop her from finishing. "Fine! If you won't track, I will." Beth's grabbed her knife and stormed off into the night. Daryl watched her go and waited a while before finally getting to his feet to follow after, but not before stomping out the fire. The only thing he had on him was the crossbow. The automatic rifle he left at the prison once he ran out of ammo. His crossbow and Beth's knife. That was it. He kept pace behind her and they kept moving well after the sun had come up.

Daryl knelt down and uncovered a few tracks. Small ones, kids size.

"They could be Luke's or Molly's. Lizzie or Micas." Beth offered. "Means they're alive."

"No. It means they were alive four or five hours ago."

"They're alive." Beth said firmly and began to walk away but stopped at a tree. "What's this?"

"Marker." Daryl replied, inspecting the scratch into the tree. "All along here, look." He pointed at a few more trees and then looked around realising that this was the last one. "It's the last one. There's tyre marks here too, they're heading back out that way. Towards the road."

"Should we follow it?"

"No. We got no hope of catching up to a car, but here." He pointed over to some more tracks. "About three people went that way, tracks are fresher than the kids. We'll follow those."

Beth sort of took the lead, but was looking over her shoulder to Daryl who kept his eyes on the ground, following the marks, so that she could turn when he did.