We were moving things into the house because Hershel said we could sleep in the house after what happened with Dale. When I was about to walk inside the house, Carl stopped me.
"Maddie, can I talk to you?" He asked.
"Yeah, of course you can Carl." I said. "What is it?" I asked.
"Can we talk somewhere else please?" He begged.
"Okay little buddy." I said, when Daryl came up. "Daryl, can you take this inside for me? Carl wants to talk to me." I said.
"Okay." He said. Me and Carl then walked off but not too far. We walked to the barn and I turned to him.
"What do you need to talk about?" I asked, curious. He took a gun out and looked at it.
"I took this from Daryls motorcycle, can you give it back to him?" He asked.
"Why did you take it?" I asked. "And you need a gun to protect yourself." I said.
"I don't want it." He said. "I got Dale killed." He said.
"Don't blame yourself Carl you had noth-" I began to say until he interrupted me.
"I saw that walker where the mud is." He said. "I should've killed it and Dale would've still been alive." He continued.
"Why did you go out there by yourself? And don't blame yourself, you had no way to know the walker would get through." I assured.
"I don't know why I went there but I basically helped the walker get through the mud by throwing rocks and stuff at it." He said.
"Carl, you could've came and got me and I would've done it for you." I said. "But don't blame yourself, alright." I said.
"I know but please don't tell anyone." He asked.
"I won't, it'll just be between me and you." I said.
He smiled faintly and got up then walked away, leaving the gun beside me. I sighed before grabbing the gun and walked to Daryl. I was walking a bit slow because my mind was filled with a lot of thoughts until they were interrupted by Daryl.
"Maddie I'm sorry I yelled at you, I was just worried about you." He apologized. "I don't want anything happening to you." He added.
"Don't worry about it Daryl, I understand." I assured. "And I have to give you something." I said, pulling his gun out from the back of my pants.
"Why do you have my gun?" He asked. I decided to lie even though I never lied to him.
"I was going to give Carl a gun to defend himself with." I lied.
"You know you're going to have to ask his parents and you know how Lori is." He said, grabbing the gun out of my hand.
"I know. I guess that's why I decided against giving it to him." I said, chuckling slightly.
We walked back to the house and I saw Rick and Shane talking. I went to my favorite place, which is at the fence and just stayed there for a little while until Carl came up to me.
"Was Daryl mad I took his gun?" He asked.
"He doesn't know you took it." I said. "I told him I was going to give it to you but decided against it because of your parents." I added.
"Thank you Maddie, you're a great friend." He said, hugging me.
"I'll always be here for you Carl and I'll always protect you no matter what." I said, hugging him back.
"Carl, come on I'll teach you how to shoot a gun because it's about time you learn how to use it." Rick said, behind me. Carl looked at me before going to his father.
"I'll go with you both." I said, following them. We went out to the field and put targets down for Carl to shoot. "Carl, here you can use my gun." I said, handing him the gun.
"Okay Carl, aim for the middle." Rick said. Carl aimed and shot but missed.
"Do this Carl." I said. "Take a deep breath and slowly let it out then shoot, that always works for me." I said. He did as I suggested and shot, hitting the middle of the target.
"I did it." He said, making us smile.
"Good job Carl." Rick said. "That's a good technique Maddie." He said, looking at me.
"That's what my brother taught me." I replied. I looked and saw Daryl watching. I can tell he was smiling slightly. After a few more shots, Rick had Carl give my gun back then we went back to the house. "I saw you watching Carl shoot, he's getting better at it." I said, standing next to him.
"Yeah he is." He said. "I saw you suggesting something from what I can tell from here." He said.
"I just taught him the way you taught me." I said. "I told him to take a deep breath and slowly let it out then aim and shoot." I added.
"Was he nervous to shoot?" He asked.
"Yeah he was. He missed the first time but after telling him what you taught to do, he hit the middle." I said, leaning against the fence. He smiled before the smile faded away. "Is something wrong Daryl?" I asked, worried.
"I was just thinking about something but it's not important." He assured.
I didn't want to push him to tell me what's wrong because he'll tell me when he's ready. It was starting to get dark so we went to bed to get some rest.