The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 58 - Vicious Creatures

"How hungry are you on a scale of 1 to 10?" Rick asked Carl as we all gathered around the fire place for breakfast.

"15" Carl answered.

"28." Michonne said.

"Not even gonna ask you." Rick looked to me with a smile. Apparently they had next to no supplies and were rather jealous of the amount that I had accumulated.

I hadn't mentioned Martinez, at least not by a name they knew. I only called him Caesar to avoid an uproar. I'd tell them, but I had the feeling I might have to ease into it. Their reaction to my going back to the prison and then the farm all in one night was bad enough. Carl had smiled and Michonne seemed unsurprised, but Rick had called it "reckless." He didn't complain when I opened a tin of peaches for dinner, though.

"Hey, I offered you soup." I retorted.

"We'll check the traps first, better to use what's there first if there is any."

"Can I go with you?" Carl asked.

"Well, how else are you gonna learn?" Rick replied happily.

We had camped amongst the trees that night, catching each other up on what had been happening. Carl had helped Rick get out, but he was badly beaten and barely able to breathe. They rested up in a house, in the same town I had been in, until he got better and that's where they stumbled across Michonne. Rick also told me that the house they had been in had been found by a group of men. He had been forced to kill one of them before jumping out the window. When he described how they used the word claimed I had to suppress a laugh. Those boys certainly got around.

But nonetheless I told Rick the same thing I told Martinez. We should stay off the tracks, keep hidden and he agreed. They were on their way to Terminus and I was happy to camp with them for a little while, but I was yet to tell them I had no intention in going there.

Michonne went to get up with them, but I caught her hand. "I could actually use you're help."

She looked to Rick and he nodded. "We've got this."

They headed out and Michonne turned to me with a questioning look before I handed her over my medical bag. "There's thread and tweezers in there and a needle. I'd do it myself, but I can only reach with one hand."

He face dropped. "I thought you said you're shoulder was fine."

"It is. It's just where the biggest cut is... keeps opening up, couple of stitches will help it along faster." I explained as I removed my shirt and stood there in a bra before beginning to take off the patch on the back of my shoulder that would be littered in small scars in the future with the evidence of the world's luckiest escape from a buckshot.

"I don't know..." Michonne began to grimace as she looked at it and then the needle in her hand.

"Oh, come on... you hack walkers to death on a daily basis, but this makes you squeamish?"

She wrinkled up her nose, but sucked it up and did as I asked. It had bled through the bandage, but I decided it wasn't worth wasting another on. Once it was stitched it shouldn't bleed as much, and medical supplies were a rarity.

"Can you see which one needs it?"

"Yeah, right on the bone, still bleeding. You said this happened days ago."

"Nearly four. It only needs two, their not that long, just deep. Pinch it together and shove the needle through the skin as close to the wound as you can get with an even spacing for the second one."

I winced when she began, but got used to it by the end. I threw the old dressings into the fire and had Michonne tidy up the dried blood.

"There's a couple more that may need it." She informed.