The End of a New Beginning // Daryl Dixon

Part 43

Meredith

THE SUN WAS shining bright in the room. My eyes slowly open up and I found myself almost confused as to where I was for a moment. I pull myself up and looked around, replaying last nights events in my head. Oh, right. I realized now that Daryl wasn't anywhere in the room. I turn my head towards the window and see black smoke. I pull myself from the bed and made my way outside. 

I opened the door and see Daryl carrying the small body in his arms, approaching the burning body on the ground and trying his hardest to lay the smaller body in the flames. He takes a step back and watches. I slowly approach his side, staring at the burning bodies. 

"Thank you." I utter quietly to him. I slip my hand in his, holding it tightly and laying my head on his shoulder. We remained standing here til the the flames died out completely. 

I gathered everything I had taken out of my bag last night.

"That car was headed downtown." Daryl announces. "I say we get up in one of the tall ones, get ourselves a view, see what we see."

"We can stay close to the building and keep quiet, but sooner or later, we're gonna be drawing 'em." I nodded. Daryl grabs his crossbow and we walk out of the room.

It was a little while before we reached downtown. We kept ourselves on the sidewalk, touching the building to keep close and quiet. With the time being away from the city, lots and lots of vegetation had grown here. Tall trees, even a few palm trees have grown a lot. 

We reached the end of the street and stopped. Daryl peaks around the building before turning back to me.

"Alright, we can get up there. There's a bridge." He pulls his bag from his shoulders and drops it on the ground. He pulls out a yellow notepad, pulls out his lighter and sets it on fire. He tosses the notepad out into the street as a distraction to the walkers. We watched as the walkers began making their way towards the flames. Daryl steps around the corner and I follow close behind him. 

We enter a parking garage. We kill two walkers and reached a door, peaking inside first before going in. We walk up a set of stairs and enter the bridge. There, we find sleeping bags with wriggling walkers and a tent shaking. Daryl and I each take them out.

Daryl pauses for a moment, staring at the moving tent filled with growls. He let's out a sigh, retrieving an arrow.

"Some days, I don't know what the hell to think." He claims. We make our way around the tents, one of them flopping over. We reached the end of the bridge. I open the door, but it opens so much from the chains. I bring myself to my knees and removed my backpack, tossing in my bow and quiver, then my bag. Daryl holds the door open as I fall on all fours, crawling through the door. I quickly gathered my things and turn to the door, seeing Daryl holding his crossbow through the door. I grab onto it and held it in my hand. He tosses his bag through the door and finally crawls through.

"Good thing we skipped breakfast." He sighs out. We walked through the hallways, checking each door we spotted. Each one was locked. Daryl approaches two doors and easily opens it. We step inside, seeing the large window before us. This was a good spot here. 

We set our bags down and I wander over to the window, getting a better look of everything we see. The buildings, the ground, covered in vegetation and burn marks, walkers roaming the streets, birds flying across the sky. It was too depressing seeing that this city was once alive. Now, it's nothing but a complete ghost town. I could practically sense ghosts just roaming this earth. Maybe they think everything's normal, that nothing happened. Maybe they're off going to work, talking with friends, fighting in a bar, giving birth in a hospital, somebody getting proposed to.