Forfeit ~Shane Walsh/OC~

Chapter Nine

Carol, Daryl, Andrea, and I were all in the camper. Of course none of us were asleep. Carol just laid in one of the beds in the back crying her eyes out. I was finishing up Shane’s lesson on cleaning guns with Andrea. Daryl laid in the floor beside us, being kept awake by all the noise the three of us were making. He eventually got too frustrated to even try to sleep anymore. He stood up and grabbed his crossbow.

“I need my clip now,” he told Andrea and me. She handed his clip to him and he took it. “I’m gonna walk the road, look for the girl,” he told us before looking at Carol and nodding to her.

“I’m going too,” I told him before grabbing my hunting knife and rifle and following him. Dale was keeping watch as we both walked outside with flashlights in our hands.

“We’re going for a walk. Shine some light in the forest. If she’s out there, it’ll give her something to look at,” Daryl told Dale. He just looked back and forth between us and agreed to let us go.

“You really think we’re gonna find Sophia?” I asked Daryl as we walked through the woods. He shined the flashlight in my face before answering me.

“You got that look on your face. Same as everybody else. What the hell is wrong with you people. We just started looking,” he said with a disappointed tone.

“Well, do you?” I asked again looking for his honest answer.

“It ain’t the mountains of Tibet. It’s Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time.”

“She’s only twelve.”

“I was younger than that when I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak,” Daryl said as we both looked around the forest.

“They found you?” I asked him.

“My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doing another stint in juvie. Didn’t even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful,” he said, aiming for a laugh. He got one. Of course I couldn’t help but giggle at him. Daryl’s redneck charm was working on my but only slightly.

“I’m sorry, I said between little bits of laughter. “That is a terrible story.” We both laughed a bit before he continued.

“The only difference is Sophia’s got people looking for her. I call that an advantage.” We heard some rustling in the woods and Daryl quickly drew his crossbow. He followed in the direction the noise came from and I stayed close behind him with my knife drawn. We came up on a small tent and a man hanging in a tree with absolutely no meat on his legs.

“What the hell?” Daryl said as we got closer to him. “‘Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit.’” He read a note posted on a tree. “Dumbass didn’t know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait,” Daryl shined the flashlight onto him.

“Ugh. What a mess,” I said gagging.

“You alright?” he asked concerned.

“Just trying not to puke.”

“Go ahead if you gotta,” he said still amazed by the walker swinging in front of us.

“Let’s just talk about something else for a minute,” I hunched over bracing myself.

“Alright,” he said. “How’d you learn to shoot?”

“Gotta eat something when you’re growing up in the sticks. I think we may have more in common than you think, Daryl Dixon,” I said with a sickly smile. He returned it.

“I guess we do. It’s something we and these walkers have in common too. I guess we’re the closest he’s been to food since he turned. Other walkers came along and ate all the flesh off his legs,” he said shining the light on him. I projectile puked instantly.

“I thought we were changing the subject.” I whipped my mouth off with my hand and he handed me a canteen to rinse my mouth out.

“I guess that’s payback for laughing at my itchy ass,” he smiled at me and I laughed a little. “Come on. Let’s head back.”

“Aren’t you gonna put him down?” I asked. A little piece of humanity showing in me.

“No, he ain’t hurting nobody. I ain’t wasting an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang,” Daryl said. He seemed to be really enjoying the term ‘opted out’. I walked closer to the hanging corpse wishing I could do something for it. He came up behind me slowly.

“You want Shane or not?” he asked getting closer to me. I turned to look at him instead of the walker in the tree.

“An answer for an arrow. Fair?” he nodded at my deal. I looked at my feet searching for the right answer, the truest one I could come up with. “At this point, I don’t exactly know if I want to be with him or if he’s just a habit,” I said truthfully.

“Not much of an answer,” Daryl said as he aimed and shot the walker in the head. “Waste of an arrow.” He turned and started walking back.

“Daryl, wait.” He turned to face me again. “Why do you even care about what’s going on between me and Shane?” I asked him.

“An answer for a kiss,” he said and I looked at him seriously. “On the cheek. I know you just threw up. Fair?” I sighed and agreed. “I don’t like the way he’s treating you. No woman deserves what he’s doing to you. Especially one as strong as you. I know that you know you deserve better but you’re settling for that piece of shit. Why? Because you love him? Because he’s a habit? Come on, Abby! He sure is shitty at showing how much he loves you,” he got a little snappy toward the end of his short rant. This guy actually cared about my feelings. Daryl would be the last person in the world I would expect to give two shits about another person’s feelings. I just stared, amazed at what he just said. After a few minutes of just staring at each other he quickly made his way over to me and gently pushed me against the tree behind me.

“Daryl, I-” My statement was interrupted by his lips crashing onto mine. I was kissing him back before I even realized what was happening. Once I did, I quickly pushed him away.

“You’re married? Is that what you were gonna say?” Daryl asked before he walked away, not even expecting an answer. I followed him, trying to keep up but failing. I really didn’t know what to think at this point. I mean, he just kissed me right? So why not talk about what exactly just happened? Why would he do something that crazy and then just shut down? After a long struggle of trying to keep up with Daryl, we finally made it back to the RV. Dale climbed down to meet us but Daryl went directly inside.

“What’s wrong with him?” Dale asked me.

“No clue,” I half lied to him.

“Did you guys find anything?”

“Nothing that would lead us to Sophia,” I told him sadly. He just nodded in disappointment.

“Go on and try to get some sleep. I won’t be needing any tonight,” Dale said.

“No, Dale you sit on top of that RV enough. Go on inside,” I told him without giving him a chance to argue. I climbed up the ladder, took a seat in the lawn chair, and sat my rifle in my lap. For a little while, I just tried to think about what I would be doing right now if none of this would have ever happened but I couldn’t think of anything. I didn’t even know what day of the week it was supposed to be, let alone what I would be doing. I don’t even remember what it’s like to sleep without wondering if I was going to die the next day. Hell, I don’t even remember what it was like trying to sleep without picturing Shane and Lori together. Nothing in this new world makes sense to me but it feels like I’ve already adapted. I don’t like how easy it’s gotten to forget my old life before the dead roamed around. I just want all of this to be over.