Blood Soaked Arrows (On Hold)

(23) Finding A Way Away

I was shaken awake by Daryl when we finally arrived back to the camp. My body felt sluggish as I slowly worked my way up into a sitting position. Despite the fact that I had taken a two day sleep fest before Daryl and I had started out on this trip as well as taken a little nap on the way back, I still felt exhausted. The side of my neck ached and automatically I rubbed my palm against.

“How long was I out?” I asked lazily as Daryl parked the car along the side of the road, adjacent to the others.

“An hour, maybe half.” He replied looking over at me from the corner of his eye.

I groaned and let my head fall back against the seat. “Damn it Dixon why didn’t you wake me up sooner?”

“I ain’t your damn nanny.” He scoffed at me in annoyance and then shoved his door open.

I arched my eyebrow at him in confusion over his sudden aggravation with me but then I remembered everything that we had just gone through with the whole Bryan thing. Bryan was still out there, full of malice, and searching for me. I knew that Daryl was pissed that he hadn’t been able to take Bryan out and I knew that he was even more pissed at me for getting in the way but there was no chance that Daryl would have made it out of there alive if I had let him be. We had set out to get supplies thinking that the worst threat we could have encountered would be Walkers, not a bunch of thugs with a vendetta out on me. We had been to vulnerable, out gunned, and out manned.

I let out a sigh and accepted Daryl’s attitude towards me because if I could go back and live it all over again, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I followed Daryl out of the truck and turned to grab the two of the gas containers out of the back.

I hitched the two gallons up until I had them secured against both sides of my hips and looked over at Daryl. His expression was hard as he focused on the task of moving around our supplies. There were black smears of oil and dirt across his chin and along strong jawline and I could help but smile. He caught my change in posture and glared at me when he realized that I was staring at him.

“What?” He snapped.

My smile didn’t waver at the annoyance in tone “It’s nothing.” I shrugged nonchalantly and looked over at our group that was nearing.

Rick was in front, as always with his hard-set jaw and sharp gaze. The rest of the group trailed behind him but their expressions were all a blur to me. Rick’s cool gaze caught mine and my spine instantly straight and my shoulders squared themselves as I met his hard gaze head on. He stopped walking towards me when there was only a stride left between us and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Did you get everything?” He asked in crisp tone that showed his newly stated status as our leader.

I notched my chin a little higher in defiance to show him that even though I was one of his followers I was also his equal. “That and more.”

The muscles on the sides of his neck tensed when he caught my fierce stance and his gaze on me darken slightly. His darkened eyes held mine in an intense stare down, making the muscles in my stomach clench and then suddenly our gazes broke and he turned to look at Daryl.

“Were there any problems?” He asked in a stern voice that made me feel as if he was asking if I had been a problem.

From the corner of Daryl’s eye he looked at Rick. “She found all of the supplies, and the truck on top of that.”

“I see.” Rick nodded to him and took a step closer to the end of the truck to help distribute some of the supplies.

Daryl lifted one of the boxes of supplies out of the back. “We did run into that group that Randall had been a part of though.”