little grimes | daryl dixon | WATTYS 2018

chapter two

6 months in
chapter two
august

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"listen, all i'm sayin' is that blue is better than black." he states.

"now you listen, black, is perfect, shows life. blue is the sky."

"dumbass. black ain't got no life."

"you have no life." i shove my best friend.

"oh but i have you." daryl says.

"you wish."

we were coming back from a walk while some of the group where going on a run. i wanted to spend daryls last day before he went on a run with him. we had been friends for 6 months and i couldn't bear to lose him.

okay, maybe it was because i had a small crush on him.

maybe.

"alright princess, this is my stop. be safe, a'ight?"

"i always am. just washing clothes and gettin' food." i roll my eyes and he chuckles.

with a final 'see you later,' we then head in different directions.

"auggie!" i hear carl yell. "why were you gone for so long?"

"no reason, just enjoying the weather while we still have it."

"you were with daryl." he says, dragging out daryl's name.

"ugh. it's not like that."

"aug! i need your help!" i hear lori call.

i walk over to her and see what she wants.

"yeah?"

"i need to get more of these, can you watch the fire and keep them cooking?" i nod and sit on the log. "oh and can you watch carl?"

"for sure."

me and carl were playing cards while lori was off doing whatever. i forgot what she said.

"i beat your ass kid." we were playing uno and i had beat him twice in a row.

"nuh uh." he says, and pulls his final card. it was a trade cards with the other player card.

"damn." i mutter and he laughs at me.

"oh screw off." we play another 3 rounds before lori comes back. then it's off to laundry for me. i was going to fold clothes. i only did lori and carls and mine. plus daryls sometimes because god knows he wouldn't do it himself.

but that was on a rare occasion.

anyways, i was folding with carol when dale got a message on the radio.

"we should be back tomorrow... making one more stop."

and that's all we heard that day.

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the next we were all waiting for them to come back. so when they didn't, we all got worried.

but we all kept busy. either we were washing clothes, cooking food, boiling water, or even cleaning our living space. i had my own tent. it was the smallest one and there was an odd number of us. i was rearranging it. an odd habit i had when i was nervous. i was nervous for the group in atlanta, i was nervous for daryl, for rick, if he's even alive.

i was just nervous. that's all there is to it.

and i was feeling urges again and the only person to calm me down was rick and daryl. daryl knew i was in in-patient, but didn't know what for. he said he didn't care if i was a murderer, i was still his and he was mine.

in this moment, i knew i was truly alone. that i would have to figure things out for myself. how to control the urges. how to control myself.

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the next day, i woke up early with amy and we decided to make eggs and greens. the same thing we had everyday. we were running low on eggs. we had enough left for a few more days at the least.

"are as worried as i am?" amy asks me.

"about what?"

"the group. in atlanta. they should be back by now."

"they'll be fine, okay? i promise."

by mid day everyone was up and had ate. right now i was with sophia and carl, teaching them language arts. they were supposed to write a story about a perfect world. the lesson was tied in with the apocalypse. we could never live in a perfect world. i ran it by lori and carol and they said it was perfect.

"okay, let's read them." i read sophia's first. hers was about rainbows and her family. being perfect instead of what ed did to them. he abused them, everyday new bruises showed up on them each.

i then read carl's and his was about his dad. how if he never got shot, they wouldn't be in this mess. i would've moved out and had a baby so carl would have someone to play with.

"now, the lesson was that no one can have a perfect world, but there is an upside,"

"what's that?" sophia asks me.

"our dreams." i answered. "when we dream, everything is perfect. we can make up our own magical world filled with rainbows and unicorns." i say and carl looks at me. "and captain america." it was his favorite superhero. he smiles up at me.

"come on, let's go play tag." i tagged sophia and she ran around, chasing the both of us. i was hiding behind lori when the static filled the air.

all of us turned our attention towards the radio.

"we... we got trapped."

that's all i needed to hear. i couldn't lose any of them. we may have only known each other 6 months, but it feels like most of us are family.

"we should go after them." i said.

"no. we can't risk losing more men."

i scoff.

"got a problem?"

it was a shame that shane knew me too well. he knew i wouldn't retaliate against him.

"nothing." i sighed and walked to my tent. i took off my red flannel and changed into a tank top, pulling the flannel around my waist.

after a few minutes of sitting on my cot, i heard a really loud noise. i went out to see who it was and what was causing it. i soon saw glenn get out of the car.

"turn that shit off!" i yelled, annoyance filling my voice.

"i don't know how!" he yells back.

shane pulls out a button and it stops.

"are you stupid?" shane asked the rhetorical question.

"hey, i got a really cool car." i couldn't help but laugh.

amy was bombarding glenn with questions and once we saw the truck pull up she exhaled in relief.

that's when i knew. rick wasn't coming back. i started crying, leaning against the car as lori talked to carl.

"mom, where's dad?" he asks. tears filling his voice. lori didn't want to tell him that rick died. it was too much for him.

"hey helicopter boy, come on out!" morales shouts. the car door slams and i look up.

rick?

carl and i both run towards him, rick picking carl up and me wrapping my arms around his neck. soon lori joins us.

we were a family again.

it was surreal.

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