Hope's POV
I wake up to Augustus' wet tongue on my cheek. I sniff and sit up, touching my face. I was crying again, and he was wiping the tears away.
I smile sadly and rub his belly before getting up. I had found an old house. It had a bed, a door that could close, and no walkers. Basically, everything I needed at the moment.
I pull out a can of something, looking at the label. It's pork and beans. I open the can and eat half, giving the rest to Augustus, since I had only grabbed two or three cans of dog food.
I open the door and walk outside. It's sunny, and birds are chirping. Augustus sprints ahead, sniffing flowers and trees, chasing animals and all that other dog stuff.
We walk through the forest for a bit before I stop and lean against a birch tree.
What's my plan of action? I can't keep doing stuff like this, being alone. Loneliness holds nothing for me. Sure, I have a dog, but a dog can't talk to me, give me advice. He helps me, but he isn't...Daryl.
Should I try to find any trace of my group? I wouldn't know where to start. I don't even know if they're alive or not. I'm still hanging on to the hope that they'll find me, but I know that my chances are thin.
"Augustus! Come here boy!" I whistle, and the dog comes streaking from a group of bushes. "I don't know what to do."
He sits, tilting his head at me.
"What do you think? If you think I should find a new group, lick my left hand." I hold out both my hands.
Augustus looks at both for a bit before leaning forwards and licking my left hand.
"Really? You think so? What about my friends...my family?" I ask.
He lies down, resting his muzzle between his paws and looking up at me sadly.
"You're saying that I shouldn't even try? They'll find me?"
His tail wags, and I take that as a sign for "yes".
"I'm probably already going crazy. I'm trying to decipher your language for goodness sake." He looks at me. "Plus, I'm still talking to you." I sigh, feeling my eyes ache from pent up sorrow. "Let's keep going, to wherever our feet, or paws, take us."
Daryl's POV
"What made you notice Hope in the first place?" Beth asks.
We're walking through the forest, the next morning. After our little...fight, we went inside and sobered up. We ended up burning the house down, purposely. It was Beth's idea, and I used the money in my bag to help it burn.
For the first time in my life, I had money to burn.
"I'd have to explain a lot," I say. "From before we came to your farm."
"We've got time." She smiles and waits.
I look at her, wondering if I should tell her this. It would feel nice to tell someone about her...
"Some of my group, at the time, found her in Atlanta, alone in a department store."
"Who was it that found her? You?"
"Naw, I was out huntin' back at our camp. It was a little ways out of Atlanta, near a quarry. Andrea, Merle, T-dog, Glenn, Morales, and Jacqui, they went to the city for supplies."
"Morales and Jacqui?"
"Morales and his family left to find some family of theirs, before we left the quarry. Jacqui died later."
YOU ARE READING
Daryl's Angel (Book One in the Apocalypse Angel Trilogy)
Fanfiction"Why're you bein' so nice to me?" "I would want the same if I were you." Hope Starling was alone when the dead started rising. She had always been alone, with parents that had disowned her and no friends to help her. Inside the department store in...
