The Way We Live Now: A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

Chapter I: Days Gone Bye (Part 1)

Chapter I: Days Gone Bye (Part 1)

My heart raced faster in my chest than it ever had before. I longed to stop and rest, but the sound of muffled steps and loud groans behind me kept me moving.

If I stopped I'd die, and if I died he would to. I turned my head up to look at Jacob still running quite a distance ahead of me. Jacob was 7 and still quite small for his age. He was so young but the months of running for his life, scavenging for food, and the constant killing spree that we had put ourselves in, had hardened him.

His face showed the man he was slowly become, his childhood lost, and there was nothing I could do about it. The creatures were closer now gaining on me.

I reached to my holster and pulled out my gun cocking it and turning to shoot the things. My first shot hit the closest one in the shoulder slowing it down for a second but soon regained its footing and resumed chasing me.

"Damn," I said out loud and shot it again this time the bullet made contact with its forehead

It toppled to the ground and oozing dark red blood. I shot a couple more before I turned around and started running again. My feet burned in my boots that were two sizes to small.

I had picked them up back at the sporting goods store we raided a couple of days ago, they were to small to begin with but better to run in than my Mickey Mouse flip flops I had been wearing.

I had been tempted to leave them behind knowing I'd never be able to wear them again but I stuck them in my book bag anyways. They were the last thing from my life before.

I caught up with Jacob just as the moans began to disappear behind me, their attention momentarily taken by a deer. I felt that it was safe but I didn't let us stop, I had become paranoid that we were never safe a survival tactic.

"Can we stop now," Jacob finally asked breathing heavily and leaning over to place his hands on his knees.

I stopped momentarily to listen for the signs of anything out of place in the otherwise quite forest.

"Sure," I said finding nothing that made me scared, "But lets climb the trees just to be safe."

Jacob didn't argue, he seldom did these days. We were 12 years apart, but we were so like each other it was scary. We both had the same piercing blue eyes and shagging blond hair. When my mom brought him home from the hospital he was instantly my responsibility.

My mom being the way she was spending most of her time passed out bfrom her drugs or alcohol on the couch in our two bedroom trailer, and my dad never being in the picture except to get my mom nocked up I was always responsible for everything.

I payed the bills with my babysitting money, I shopped for groceries, I took care of Jacob, while still going to school myself. This is why I never had boyfriends or friends, nothing mattered but me and Jacob.

The day I turned 18 I left home taking Jacob with me. Our mom never tried to contact us. I lifted Jacob up to the first branch and handed him his book bag.

It had been his school bag before all this, the one I packed his lunch and notes for him to read, it was where he put his homework and carried with him everywhere.

It had been the one bag I grabbed when I realized we had to go. I duped all his school papers and books on the kitchen table and stuffed all his cloths I could find in it and his stuffed bear, Burt, his prized possession on top, but when I we t back to the kitchen he had his school books in his arms.

"But I wanna learn," he had said to me with tearful eyes.

They were useless to take and they took up space but I let him put them in it. In my bag, the one I took when I went to my college classes, I stuffed me some cloths, my gun I kept under my pillow, the stake knives from their place on the counter and a couple cans of food and some water bottles which we quickly used up from all our running. I had been tempted to steal a car but I felt bad about it for some reason, like I would loose my humanity, but lately I knew that eventually I would have to.