RULE THE WORLD | D.DIXON

061

"We should save it," Pixie says, looking at the bottle.

"We'll find some more. Drink. You're supposed to stay hydrated. It all works together."

Pixie nodded. "Yeah, it does."

She downed some of the water, before handing it back to her friend.

The dark haired woman glanced towards Daryl, holding out the bottle. He didn't take it causing the man to grab it.

"We don't need you falling down. Drink." Daryl stared at the man, before drinking the water. "They find us, maybe we give you to them, they let us call it even. You see, we're reasonable people. Everybody's got their code. You feel you gotta kneel, that's fair enough. We don't."

"Let's go," The man ordered, before shoving Daryl ahead.

All they walked, burnt bodies layed around the woods. They started talking about how they started the forest fire, burning all the walkers. The man needs to get a woman named Patty from their formal home.

Daryl looked around at the dozens of burnt bodies. "You did all this?"

"It was right at the start. Everything stopped—the TV, the radio. We were here. The forest was full of them. And the other ones in town, they were drawn to it They just walked right into the flames. We got most of them. Thought we ended it for us, and she was in DC. We thought everyone was fighting them wherever they were." The dark haired woman explained.

"Yeah, we thought that was what everybody was doing. Fighting it. That we'd all win together. We were stupid." The man  said, walking in front of Daryl.

Daryl stopped, glancing around at the bodies before looking at the man. "Y'all don't think you're being stupid right now?"

The three stopped and turned back towards Daryl. The man stepped towards him and pulled out his gun.

"Are you saying I should kill you? I mean it, are you gonna try and pull something on us? Are we just being thick here by not removing all doubt? Right now, by me not pulling this trigger, is that a mistake? I'm serious. I really wanna know. You made a choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof over your head and three squares, so maybe I'm not considering all aspects here. You tell me, am I being stupid?"

Daryl stayed quiet for a moment, before speaking. "No. Look, I got somewhere to be. We can make a deal. I can help you out."

"You're one of them. You're hurt and you're alone and you'd say anything. We should've never trusted you people, to begin with." The man says, motioning Daryl to go. "Go on. Keeping moving."

After walking further, they came to a clearing. The man shoved Daryl out of the tree line and into the clearing.

"Son of a bitch." The man cursed, looking at a fence.

Walkers littered the parking lot as the man, and the women walked over to the fence.

"Patty," The man muttered, looking through the walkers.

"She could be..." The dark haired woman started, but the man cut her off.

"No, she's gone," He said.