Blood Soaked Arrows (On Hold)

(20) Finding the Town

About an hour out Daryl and I came across a small town, if what we found could even be called that. Most of the buildings were caved in and others looked as if they were about to. The streets were littered with decaying bodies that were so mangled and dirty that you could barely tell that they had once belonged to a human. Some of the masses of flesh moan or growled as we passed by them but none of them were really a threat since they were immobile.

I grimaced a little at the sight of them and unconsciously held Daryl closer. The thundering sounds that his motorcycle made as we slowly made our way through the ruined town was eerie. Besides the moaning from the lumps of flesh the town was quiet. It was like we were riding through a real life possessed ghost town.

Daryl swerved the bike over to a still intact body shop and with a flick of his wrist turned the engine off. His hands fell down to his thighs while I quickly unraveled mine from around his chest. Daryl rolled both of his shoulders before letting out a sigh.

For the first time I felt a little embarrassed about holding onto him so tightly and my face instantly heated up. We had been on that bike for at least an hour and I know that the entire ride I was hanging onto him pretty tightly but it had never occurred to me that Daryl might have been uncomfortable from it. I watched as Daryl rolled his shoulders again and even raised a hand up to massage the muscle in one of them. Instantly I regretted holding onto him to tightly and leaned a little bit forward.

I raised my hands up lightly began to knead them into his shoulders. As if on cue Daryl straightened up instinctively and leaned forward to get out of my reach but the handle bars on the bike caged him. “Sorry,” I sighed regretfully and pressed my palms deeper into his shoulders, kneading them awkwardly. “I didn’t know that your shoulders would get stiff from me holding onto you.”

For a split second I felt some of his muscles relax underneath my touch but as soon as that change happened he rolled his shoulders again, forcing my hands away from him. “It was just a long ride.” He scoffed before flicking up the kickstand with his foot and getting off of the bike.

I followed suite by swing my leg around and then sliding off of the bike with a smug smile on my face. I knew that Daryl had ridden that bike for hours on end and never had he fussed about his shoulders being stiff before. Putting the whole conversation behind us I flattened my shirt down with my hands and then repositioned my bow and quiver.

“Are ya’ sure that you’re going to find oil in there?” I asked when Daryl started heading towards the garage door of the body shop.

Daryl stopped for a second to pull out his crossbow from a little pouch on his bike before continuing forward. “I’d be surprised if we didn’t.”

Daryl knelt down next to the gap at the bottom of the garage door and grabbed ahold of it before lifting it up. The door let out rusty creaks and groans as Daryl pried the thing up. I was about to go over to him and help him lift it up when the door latched onto something. It must have been off track or something like that because with ease now Daryl was able to heave it the rest of the way open.

Light shined into the dusty yet perfectly untouched garage. Daryl didn’t waste time staring at it though he just wondered right inside and started looking through drawers. I let out a sigh knowing that I was completely useless in the whole mechanic and matiness business. Put any kind of weapon in my hand and I could use it with perfect precision but ask me to change oil, forget about it.

“Do ya’ think it’s foolish?” I asked warily casting my gaze down to the ash ridden ground.

“What?” He asked as he rummaged through another drawer.

“Going to Fort Benning?”

Something metal clanked against the side of the drawer, making me instantly snap my gaze away from the ground and back towards Daryl. His shoulders seemed tense again as he slowly turned his head and met my stare with a hard one.