Consumed | 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐱𝐨𝐧

five.

"Here." Daryl whispers, passing his crossbow to me. I scrunch my brows at him, he never let anyone touch this damn crossbow. Gripping it with my hands, I lift it up to the deer but I stop before I shoot. Daryl turned his head to face me. His eyes were squinting as he silently questioned why I hadn't shot it yet. "Never been so close to an alive one before." I whisper, "They're beautiful." He nods in agreement as we watch the deer for a few moments. Aiming at the beautiful deer, I steady myself as my fingers linger on the trigger. Whizzing silently, the arrow pierced into the side of the deer and we watched it drop to the ground. "Good job." He grunts at me before we get up and go to the deer.

"You think Carol will like it?" I ask, carefully pulling the arrow out of the deer's side and passing it to him. Daryl passes me the bird he had shot down and then hauls the deer up on his shoulders with two legs on each shoulder. Realising his crossbow was still in my hands, I lifted it up to him. Shaking his head at me, he looks around his body, as do I, as he searches for a place for him to hold it. He couldn't hold it and the deer. "Just keep a hold on it, will ya?" He asks, "Don't be dropping her though."

"Yes, boss." I smile as we begin to make our way back to the farm. "Would this be a bad time to crank up some tunes?" I ask in boredom. Silence was nice but it was silent for too long. I didn't like that. I wasn't used to silence even before all this. Always had some noise in my life. Even on school nights, there was some sound keeping me awake. Either my mom partying at earlier hours of the morning or her abusive boyfriend shouting at her all night. There was always something. "I know the perfect song." I tell him, "By your favourite woman, besides me of course." He grunts in disapproval.

"Kai, don't." He shortens my name as I clear my voice getting ready to belt out a tune. Kai so we have nicknames now.

"Ready pocahontas." I smiled and he grunted again. "Tumble outta bed and I stumble into the kitchen. Pour myself a cup of ambition. And yawn and stretch and try to come to life." I sing to him with my invisible microphone up to my mouth. "Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumping'. Out on the street, the traffic starts jumping. The folks like me on the job 9 to 5" Bopping my head along to the fake beat, "Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a living'. Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving. They just use your mind." I point to my head as I spin around as we enter the farm's gates. Daryl's eyes roll as we come up to the RV where Dale is sitting with Carl. "And they never give you credit. It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it." I sing as I pull Dale and Carl up to join me.

I point to Dale, "9 to 5, for service and devotion." he sings with a few voice cracks as he lightens up. "You would think that I would deserve a fair promotion." We sing together as I lift my arm up and spin him under it. His sad face lightens up as me and Dale continue to sing our duet. Carol comes out of her tent and stares at us for a few moments before I start pulling her in with my fake rope. Her eyes puffy and red she sadly jumps over to us. Pointing my invisible microphone at Carol as she brokenly sings, "9 to 5, what a way to make a living."

Dale, Carol, Carl and I begin to make a circle around Daryl as we dance around him. This is what you get for being a party pooper. Leaning into him, we belt out the lyrics to him, some of the lyrics even Carl knew. I knew Lori had a good taste in music even if she didn't have good taste in men, well Shane. Rick was fine, I suppose. That's when I realised both of Carl's parents were nowhere to be found. But I keep my worries to myself as we finish the song which everyone needed after today. We all giggle as Daryl grunts at us and muffle profanities, something about 'fucking idiots' and how Dolly Parton is shit. What a way to talk about your favourite singer. Carl and Dale go to sit back at the RV to continue Carl's 20 minutes of reading a day, which Lori insisted he needed. Whatever he needed that for was unknown. It was a useless skill now. This was the same woman who didn't want her child to learn how to use a gun which was a life saving skill.