Seven ➳ d.dixon's dog

t w e n t y - s i x

Maybe it has somethin' ta' do with Merle being gone? I'm not even able to stop the thought before it crosses my mind. It makes sense.. I guess Merle just brought out the much more.. less-favorable side of Daryl. Tha's probably for the better too.

"What would you say? That was about 150 head?" Daryl asks the pizza boy; Glenn.

I like Glenn, despite him and Maggie having been cuddled up to one another for the winter. Not that it bothered me. He's got a better head on his shoulders and has become much more confident, more mature. Is he an admirable leader? Probably not. But he is smart. I can't name how many times Rick or somebody has asked him for a help on a plan.

"That was last week. It could be twice that by now." The Korean man adds. I wish I could say he's being pessimistic but, it's just reality at this point.

I sigh through my nose at the thought. Daryl has one arm on top of the hood while the other one hangs off and idly pets my ear, occasionally scratching behind my ear. I stare down at his boots that look like they've been through hell. Their torn and washed, some of the fake leather flaking off the top of his boot. It's actually kinda amazing that they aren't any worse.

He's had those boots prior to the dead deciding to re-animate themselves and he wore them for awhile, especially during hunting trips. With the fake flakes of leather peeling off his shoe I can only assume that they're cheap. Pretty damn good for cheap ass shoes.

Hershel having more optimistic views and actually a good point, put his finger on a place on the map. At least I assume so. "This river could have delayed them. If we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through there." Tha's actually a really good point. Considering the amount of snow fall that happened during the season and how warm its begun to get, I bet the river is very high right now. All or at least a large amount of the snow has melted down into the rivers. I wouldn't be surprised ta' see a walker getting washed away like a water-slide down tha' river.

"Yeah, but if this group joins with that one, they could spill out this way." T-Dog says. I have absolutely no idea what herds you're talkin'  about but i'm sure what he's saying makes sense. T-Dog is always right. I give a firm nod to myself with a straight face.

I forgot Daryl was petting my head because of my thoughts, my nod making him look at me questionably. I have a feeling he knows I totally just nodded to myself, so instead of letting him question me like he is right now, I stare up at him innocently. Me? Nodding to myself? Nahhh.

"So we're blocked." Maggies concludes for the rest of us. So does that mean we're screwed in other words?

Mr. 'This Is Not A Democracy' steps forward and points at the map, "Only thing to do is double back at 27 and swing towards Greenville." Why do humans do that? Name towns, cities, or streets after something and the place has nothing to do with it. Like is Greenville a really green place or somethin'? It probably isn't. I remember one time we had to drive on a street named 'Cat Ave.' The whole time I was on edge expecting to see some type of cat horde. That sounded terrifying. Daryl was not very amused by my anxiousness when we turned onto that street.. I don't think he understood my minuscule fear of a cat horde.

I shiver at the thought. Cats are tha' spawn of Satan. A horde of them is just a demonic army. My ear flicks back in silent annoyance, partly because of people naming things with no correlation to what they mean and another part just simply annoyed that that was one of the few occasions Daryl couldn't understand me.

"Ye-Yeah we picked through that already. It's like we spent the winter going in circles." T-Dog says from in between Rick and I. Wait, we've been there? Pretty sure I would've remembered a green town. I give a deadpan expression to no one in particular, mentally cursing humans for their dumb names of places.

"Yeah, I know. I know." Rick says, in a understanding tone while nodding at T. "At Newnan we'll push west. Haven't been through there yet." Finally! A town name that makes some sense. Then again.. it probably isn't new anymore but it was new at some point. Wait- was Greenville green at some point then? I blink, thinking i've come to a revelation and conclusion to my very distracted and scattered thoughts. Ay, it ain't like I'm gonna be any help when they're plannin' shit.

Rick continues on, "We can't keep going house to house. Need to find someplace to hole up for a few weeks." My mind wanders to Lori and the baby. More like baby-Shane. I snort to myself at my own joke, a small doggish smile playing across my lips. Daryl looks down to me again, flicking the top of my head somehow sensing my under-handed joke. I'm not even gonna question how he knows these kinds of things at this point.

"All right. It cool if we get to the creek before we head out? Won't take long. We got to fill up on water. We can boil it later." T asks. It almost sounds like a teenage kid asking if they can go shopping while trying to convince their parent by listing reasons.

"Knock yourself out." Yes, father Rick.

Daryl moves to stand by his bike, crouching down while he tweaks at his bow. I stand next to him taking the hint on what he wants us to go do. Huntin'.

Everyone else had dispersed to go do what they had to do, leaving Hershel and Rick at the front of the car to discuss something quietly even though they're still loud enough to where I think even Daryl can still hear them. I didn't listen too intently to their conversation, all I know is something about having a baby on the side of the road and not being able to keep moving. Somethin' to do with Lori and lil' Shane.

Daryl looks up to Rick from his hunched over position, pulling back the string to knock a bolt into place, "Hey, while the others wash their panties, let's go hunt." Huh?? We're takin' him?! My ears almost instantly pin back on my head, my face only being able to be described as a 'what the fuck' face. I mean, of course it would be nice for everyone to get a sense on how to hunt but, I didn't expect for us to be giving hunting lessons right now.

"That owl didn't exactly hit the spot." He continues examining his crossbow. True.. that owl was only enough for maybe a full meal for one adult and a single Carl.

Once Rick gathered his stuff, we headed straight into the forest. Squirrels, rabbits, and any other critter better watch out 'cause it's huntin' time!

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A/N: Hi again! I normally wouldn't post another chapter this earlier after releasing one but I couldn't help myself.

Quick question! Do you prefer this slower writing style l'm going for or did you like it when everything was a lot more fast-paced?

Going more in-depth on the changes for Seven. I intend to add more chapters because YIKES I realize I went through 19 episodes within only 20 something chapters. That just seems WAYYY too fast. So I want to lengthen my writing which is why these last two chapters had a lot of Seven's scatter-brained thoughts.  The perks of slower-paced writing is that Seven will last longer, though a down-side is your action-packed scenes are further apart. Faster paced writing would have the exact opposite effect. Just let me know! :)