my angel ➶ ➶ daryl dixon

t w e n t y e i g h t

THREE WEEKS PASS

Rick's POV:
I busted through the door, a few men following me into the house to check it out. We saw no sign of trouble, so I gave the signal for the rest of the group to follow us in.

We have gotten better at clearing houses since Hershel's farm. The group took the loss of Aspen hard. I looked to her as a daughter, and then one second she was just gone. I replayed the last look on her face as I told her I killed her father. The look of hatred.

Everyday I wished I had convinced her to stay, to not have gone off by herself. If her boyfriend Thomas had done something, maybe it would have been different. I know I shouldn't blame him, but I did.

We all took her loss in our own ways, but Daryl took it the hardest. He became detached from the group and had barely said a word since the day she died. He often went out on long hunts, coming back with his clothes stained with walker blood.

Glenn also became cold, he still was with Maggie, but their relationship was more strained than before. Maggie also was taking the loss hard.

Lori was pretty far along with her pregnancy, and we needed to find a solid, safe place to stay. We had found house after house, but soon walkers would show up and we had to move on. I couldn't do this much longer.

We set up some stuff, but didn't unpack much. We had learned that we needed to be able to leave at a moments notice. We took out some squirrel we had caught earlier that day and built a fire in the fireplace. We had just begun to sit down and eat when Glenn came sprinting in.

"Guys, walkers are headed this way! And a big herd too! We need to leave." And he took off again.

We all jumped up and Hershel put out the fire. I ran to the window and saw a huge herd of walkers coming up on the front of the house.

"Everyone out the back, now!" I lead the group out of the back door and quietly into the woods. After a while, we found a clearing that was far enough away from the house that I felt safe stopping.

"I'll take first watch, everyone settle in, but stay close together. No one go off without telling someone." I watched everyone settle in and Thomas started to make a fire.

"No!" I yelled, startling everyone. "No fires. It will just draw attention." Thomas glared at me.

"So how do you suppose we'll see, Sheriff?" Thomas retorted. He had been calling me Sheriff ever since Aspen died and it really got on my nerves.

"I guess you'll have to be more careful, won't you?" I countered. He huffed and stalked off.

I saw Daryl take off into the woods and I followed him. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm goin' huntin." He said, still not stopping or turning around.

"Daryl, wait!" I grabbed his arm.

"Don't ya touch me!" He yanked his arm away, but stopped.

"What's your problem man?" I asked.

"What's my problem?! Really?! Ya gonna ask me that?!" He glared at me.

I sighed and rubbed my face, knowing exactly what his problem was. "Listen man, I get it, Aspen's death was hard on all of us..."