The Dixons

Chapter 15: How?

~Daryl's P.O.V~

After everyone had woken up, we all went outside to start working. Not even ten minutes after we got outside, Rick called us over to him.

"I would like to have shooting practices. Shane and I will be the instructors, and I want everyone to participate, even you two," he said pointing at Sophia and Carl, "it will be a great way for us to get better and we'll be ready when something does happen. We'll know what to do, and everyone can contribute. Daryl, no crossbow for this, you already know how to work that thing." I groaned.

"Who here does not know how to shoot a gun?" Sophia, Carol, Carl, and Lori raised their hands. "That's perfect." Rick said smiling.

Wow, Rick just smiled. That's rare. I walked away from the group so I could get back to what I was doing. Ten minutes later, I heard a girly scream. I grabbed my crossbow and turned around. Shane was jumping in the air, Rick was dying of laughter, and Carl had a spider in his hand.
I laughed alone with them.

"Scared of spiders, Shane?"

"Ha-ha, very funny, Dixon." I smirked and turned around. I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and it was Ariel. "Hey." She said quietly.

"Hi." She didn't respond for the longest time. "Is everything okay?" No reply. I turned around to face her.

"Is everything okay?" It took her a second, but she finally nodded. "Just peachy. What are you working on there?"

I looked down. "Just cutting wood. Never know what you might need and when you might need it. Just preparin' for the worst. What are you doing?"

"Just aimlessly walking around."

"You talked to Merle lately?" She shook her head. "He's been quiet these last few days. Maybe somethin's wrong."

"Merle is as tough as a bag of nails, nothing's wrong." I sighed and got back to work.

"You know you don't have to do that, right?" I nodded, not really paying attention to what she said. She snapped her fingers in my face.

"So don't do it. Come on, let's go walk around the farm." I hesitated before putting the wood down and walking with her, grabbing my crossbow.

"You won't need that." She said, pointing at my weapon.

"Never know what you might need." We walked the perimeter for no reason. "Is there some special reason why we just walked the perimeter?"

~Ariel's P.O.V~

"I needed to get you away from your work. You've been thinking to hard. You're being too hard on yourself, you need to lighten up! Have some fun, cut loose."

"How am I supposed to do that in a world like this?"

"Easy. Relax. You overthink, that's your problem."

"I'm overthinking about the group's safety. They're my family and if something were to happen and I wasn't there to help them In time, like with Dale, that's on me. I just think I could've done something, you know? Could've helped him if I just ran a little faster. Got out of the house a little quicker, he'd be on top of that RV right there with his binoculars and gun, waiting for something to happen. Instead, that's Andrea."

"Hey, don't you start that. Once you start, you'll never quit."

I walked away from Daryl, leaving him in his thoughts. He is way too hard on himself and I wish I could show that to him. I walked back to the group. Carol had just gotten done making scrambled eggs with a fire. Glenn made eye contact with Rick, then with Hershel. He stood up, he was obviously nervous.