Barely Surviving // TWD // Daryl Dixon #Wattys2016

Chapter XXII -- Crossbow Lesson

It turned out to be outside, where Rick was preparing the car he was going to take. Daryl led me further to the right, almost by the end of the building, he stopped there and let go of my hand.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"We won't go out but that doesn't mean we can't have fun," he told me with a grin.

"Okay?" I said with an eyebrow raised at him. "What do you have in mind?"

He said nothing, he just walked to me. He stood in front of me without doing or saying something I started to get nervous, what the hell is he going to do? As millions of possibilities passed through my head, Daryl put his crossbow in my hands.

I gaped at the heavy weapon in my hands and looked up at Daryl with a shocked expression, he just innocently shrugged at me.

"Do you want me to hold it while you tie your shoes or something?"

"Don't be silly," he said with a chuckle. "I'm teaching you how to use it."

"Oh wow!" I exclaimed. "Is this real? Am I still dreaming or something."

"Shut up!"

"Seriously, I do feel extremely especial right now. Are you actually letting me use this?" I asked, looking down at the black crossbow in my hands.

"Yeah, and if you ask one more time, I'll just take it from you."

"Okay." I nodded, still with a big smile on my face.

Daryl said nothing else, he just walked away from me, I was unsure of what he was doing at first but I noticed he was setting a target a few feet away from me, when he walked back to me, he grabbed the crossbow from me and set it on the ground.

"This is how you load it," he told me.

He pulled the string equally balanced on both sides until I heard a click and then he put an arrow in the groove. He took it in his hands again and handed it to me. I carefully took it from him and faced the target. I supported the weight with my right arm and put my left arm around the trigger. I narrowed my eyes, looking at the target and shot it. I missed terribly, I sighed, lowering the crossbow.

"Here," Daryl said, giving me an arrow. "Load it yourself this time."

I tried to load it again but I didn't equally balanced it as needed so Daryl ended up helping me, he didn't even look disappointed or said anything when I missed the first shot.

"You are holding it weird," Daryl told me.

He stood behind me, grabbing the crossbow in the way he would. I looked at it and mirrored his actions, putting my hands close to where he had his.

"You are still grabbing it wrong, this hand doesn't go here."

"Uh, I'm left-handed, Daryl, maybe that's why you think I'm holding it wrong."

"Damn it, I forgot, that makes teaching you even harder."

"How come?"

"Because I have to think like if I were a lefty as well, it's weird."

After Daryl made sure I was holding it correctly this time, even when he kept murmuring how weird it felt because the crossbow was on his other side, he took a step backwards and let me concentrate on the shot and aimed. I narrowed my eyes again, I lowered the crossbow about half an inch and shot. I failed again but this time the arrow ended closer to the target wood thing Daryl set.

Daryl was handing me a third arrow when Rick walked to us, with a thrilled Carl behind him. Rick looked a bit surprised I was holding the crossbow but didn't comment on it, instead he went to Daryl to have a final talk with him before leaving, I knew it was about keeping an eye on Merle and making sure everything was alright.