The Way We Live Now: A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

Chapter XIX: Month 2 (Part 1)

Chapter XIX: Month 2 (Part 1)

I pushed the door open quietly with the silencer on my gun and let it open all the way revealing the stench of death and mold.

When nothing jumped out at me I walked into the house listening for the tale tale signs of the dead. I heard nothing but a cold silence. Jacob walked in behind me making a loud thump as he nocked over the fake plant.

"Shhh," I said putting my finger to my lip. He nodded and made his silent journey up the stairway of the house Carl at his heels.

We had been doing this for weeks. Going through houses, killing the random walker, and bringing home the goods. It was looking prosperous.

Most of the houses where clear of walkers except for the occasional home owner who had refused to leave even in death. And it looks as though this place was abandoned in the beginnings of the outbreak and the houses where always full of canned food and cloths.

Me, Jacob, and Carl where on clean out duty. We'd walk through the house and clear it of walkers then mark the house as safe. It was boring but kept us busy. Even though I'd never admit it, I hated this constant feeling of safety. It was unnerving, like something big was about to happen.

"Clear," I called out as I walked around through the back of the house finding nothing but a dead dog and some rats that had eaten there way through the floorboards in the kitchen.

I opened the cabinets only to find more rats and uneatable food. The rats had taken this house.

"Clear," Carl called out as they bounded down the stairs.

"Anything usable," Jacob asked pocketing his gun and flashlight.

"No the rats have gotten in the food. There are some cans but I'm not sure if there safe."

"Yeah they've gotten in the cloths and beds upstairs. This house is unusable," Carl said defeated.

"That's ok bud, there are plenty of houses," I said rubbing the back of his head.

We left the house. I closed the door and Carl handed me the green spray paint. I put a nice X on the door to mark that we'd cleared the house.

We had been storing up on food in the blue house that had become our base. It was optional to move out but the houses where to big for just one family even mine, and truth be told I wasn't ready to be far away from the group just yet it didn't feel right.

I picked up the bag of spray paint and chucked it inside my new car. A green Hyundai Tucson. I loved it, but I knew not to get to attached to it, cars seldom live very long in our group.

"Let's see," I said taking out my pad of paper and adding another tally mark to my growing list of them. "That's fifteen houses so far and it isn't even lunch yet."

"It's so easy when there aren't any walkers to kill," Carl said annoyed.

"Yeah, I wanna shoot some dead bastards," Jacob said.

"Where did you learn that word," I asked shocked at his choice of language.

"Daryl says stuff like that all the time," Jacob said unfazed.

"We'll don't use it, Daryl says allot of things he shouldn't," I said closing the door and starting the car.

"I wish my dad was Daryl," Carl said.

"Why your dad is a good man," I said looking back at him in the mirror. I was horrified by the fact that Carl could dislike his father. Rick the bravest man I know. Who defied the odds and found his family amongst the horrors of the world, and lived through the beginnings in a coma. As far as I was concerned Rick was a god who could not fail.