HEART FOR BRAINS • the walking dead

029: catch of the month

"You wanna take a break?"

"Sure." Rio shrugged, shoving his crossbow into his bag. They hadn't been out for too long, maybe an hour but he wasn't going to turn down a break.

"There's a bridge up here," Daryl pointed it out, showing the boy the corner that peeked through the leaves. "You can have your food now."

"What's for food?" Rio asked, a smirk on his face.

"Carols sandwiches."

"Yum."

"Come on."

They headed over, treading through the light stream of water before reaching the bridge. Daryl picked Rio up, boosting him from the ground so he could reach the bridge before climbing up himself.

He settled down, slinging his bag between the two of them and watching as Rio knelt beside it, searching for the door inside.

"You'd swear I didn't feed you." Daryl scoffed.

"Not enough." Rio complained, taking a paper wrapped sandwich for himself. The bread was stale but he didn't care.

Something slithered past the corner of the boy's eye as he was about to take a bite, catching his attention. He got up, crawling off the bridge and kneeling down by the muddy bank.

"What're you doing?" Daryl asked.

'Snake.' Rio signed, keeping quiet and looking back at the man. He crawled forward again carefully. The knee of his jeans got soaked in the wet dirt, as well as the palm of his hands, keeping him steady.

The snake was small, maybe the length of his arm and skinny. It was a muddy green and brown colour.

He reached down, lightly running his finger across the snake's back. The creature snapped its head around and Rio flinched back for a second before laughing. He placed his hand firmly against the ground, keeping it still. Rio let the snake get used to him, taking in the smell of his hand, the creature slithered around in the dirt.

The boy wore a giddy grin as he turned back to Daryl. The man wasn't nearly as impressed as he was.

"What are you doing?" He said, almost afraid to ask.

A small gasp escaped him as the snake wandered up his fingers, resting on the back of his hand. Rio lifted his arm off the ground and the snake twisted, wrapping itself around the boy's arm.

"I caught it! Daryl." He said. "Daryl, take a photo of it?"

The man pulled the small camera out of the front of Rio's rucksack. The one Glenn had gifted him. He pressed his eye to the lens and Rio caught sight of him smiling. The smile soon faded as Rio brought the snake closer.

With the snake as close to his face as Daryl would let him, Rio smiled for the photo, satisfied when he heard the click and it began to print. The man put it safely into the pocket of his vest.

"Aren't you afraid it's gonna bite you?" He asked.

"No. Did you know that only, like, ten percent of snakes in America are venomous." Rio kept the snake on his arm as he shuffled over. It slithered around his hand and fingers and trailed up to his elbow. He scooped it up in his other hand. "So if he did bite me, chances are nothing would happen."

"How'd you know that?"

"Back at home, the kid next door had a snake. I was scared of it at first but then I warmed up to him after looking through a ton of the girls' snake books. I actually warmed up to him so much that I wanted my own. My parents just ignored my nagging, though." Rio laughed.