Sun flickered in through the windows whilst Rio was tying up his laces. He sat at the bottom of the stairs and Daryl came and sat down to the left of him, knocking his knee as he did. The boy finished tying up his shoes, flashing him a smile.
"What're you doing here?" He asked.
"I'm going out, you wanna come?"
Rio nodded his head. "How long are we gonna be?"
"How long is a piece of string?"
Rio stared at him blankly, confused on how that had any relevance. "I don't know." He settled for, shaking his head slightly.
"There's your answer." The man shrugged, getting up off the steps. "Grab your stuff and tell Rick you're leaving, I'll be waiting by the watchtower."
"Okay."
"Oh," Daryl stopped him. "Don't forget these." He pointed to the boy's ear.
'I won't' Rio signed back.
The man raised an eyebrow suspiciously before walking off, heading outside and talking to Carol.
***
Rio trailed behind Daryl as he led him through the woods. He tread quietly over the sticks and leaves, careful not to scare away any animals or to attract any walkers. The man scanned the area, his crossbow comfortably in his hands.
The boy stayed close, holding onto his own crossbow loosely, just in case he saw something Daryl had missed. Rio doubted it, Daryl was the best tracker at the prison. He was probably the only tracker now that Rio thought about it. He could be the best and the worst, all at the same time.
A faint snarl came from behind the pair, a Walker stumbling into Rio's view. Daryl shot it and began to reload his crossbow when another approached. Its foot was caught in a bear trap so it limped along even slower, tattered trousers and shirt getting caught in the leaves.
"I can do It." Rio said, stopping the man. He pulled the crossbow off of his shoulder and aimed it forward. The boy squinted, watching the Walker as it stumbled forwards, trying to get his shot as accurate as he could.
The man stopped him for a second and adjusted the boy's grip on the crossbow. "Where'd you even find this, by the way?" Rio asked quietly, closing one eye once the crossbow was in position again. He pulled the trigger and it fell to the ground with a twang, mud splattering across the slumped body.
"That was good." Daryl smiled, squeezing his shoulder.
"It was walking really slow." The boy turned to look up at him with a frown.
"You're being modest."
"Modest?" Rio asked.
"Yeah, you're..." Daryl paused to think, unsure on how to explain the word. "You don't want to admit that you did as good as you did."
"Thanks." The boy smiled at him, happy from the compliment. At least he thought it was a compliment, Rio took it as one.
"I got it from some hunting store not far from here." Daryl answered his earlier question. "I wasn't gonna pick it up. Everyone's better off with guns really."
"They're easier." Rio nodded along.
"But then..." Daryl signed a few words throughout their conversations, constantly trying to recall what Rio had been teaching him. "I remembered you were pretty good with mine."
"I've gone from good to pretty good?"
"You're quite good."
"Yes." Rio beamed back, holding his fist out. Daryl bumped it.
"You wanna take a break?"
"Sure." Rio shrugged, shoving his crossbow into his bag. They hadn't been out for too long, maybe an hour but he wasn't going to turn down a break.
"There's a bridge up here," Daryl pointed it out, showing the boy the corner that peeked through the leaves. "You can have your food now."
"What's for food?" Rio asked, a smirk on his face.
"Carols sandwiches."
"Yum."
"Come on."
They headed over, treading through the light stream of water before reaching the bridge. Daryl picked Rio up, boosting him from the ground so he could reach the bridge before climbing up himself.
He settled down, slinging his bag between the two of them and watching as Rio knelt beside it, searching for the door inside.
"You'd swear I didn't feed you." Daryl scoffed.
"Not enough." Rio complained, taking a paper wrapped sandwich for himself. The bread was stale but he didn't care.
Something slithered past the corner of the boy's eye as he was about to take a bite, catching his attention. He got up, crawling off the bridge and kneeling down by the muddy bank.
"What're you doing?" Daryl asked.
'Snake.' Rio signed, keeping quiet and looking back at the man. He crawled forward again carefully. The knee of his jeans got soaked in the wet dirt, as well as the palm of his hands, keeping him steady.
The snake was small, maybe the length of his arm and skinny. It was a muddy green and brown colour.
He reached down, lightly running his finger across the snake's back. The creature snapped its head around and Rio flinched back for a second before laughing. He placed his hand firmly against the ground, keeping it still. Rio let the snake get used to him, taking in the smell of his hand, the creature slithered around in the dirt.
The boy wore a giddy grin as he turned back to Daryl. The man wasn't nearly as impressed as he was.
"What are you doing?" He said, almost afraid to ask.
A small gasp escaped him as the snake wandered up his fingers, resting on the back of his hand. Rio lifted his arm off the ground and the snake twisted, wrapping itself around the boy's arm.
"I caught it! Daryl." He said. "Daryl, take a photo of it?"
The man pulled the small camera out of the front of Rio's rucksack. The one Glenn had gifted him. He pressed his eye to the lens and Rio caught sight of him smiling. The smile soon faded as Rio brought the snake closer.
With the snake as close to his face as Daryl would let him, Rio smiled for the photo, satisfied when he heard the click and it began to print. The man put it safely into the pocket of his vest.
"Aren't you afraid it's gonna bite you?" He asked.
"No. Did you know that only, like, ten percent of snakes in America are venomous." Rio kept the snake on his arm as he shuffled over. It slithered around his hand and fingers and trailed up to his elbow. He scooped it up in his other hand. "So if he did bite me, chances are nothing would happen."
"How'd you know that?"
"Back at home, the kid next door had a snake. I was scared of it at first but then I warmed up to him after looking through a ton of the girls' snake books. I actually warmed up to him so much that I wanted my own. My parents just ignored my nagging, though." Rio laughed.
"You never got one?"
"Nope, but the further away I got from home the more snakes I saw and I'd catch them." The boy smiled widely, recounting it. "Or I'd try to. Jesse never let me keep them though, whether I caught it or not."
"Well, I hate to break it to you kiddo but you're not keeping that one either."
"You won't let me keep Walker?" The boy asked, frowning up at the man.
"You named it Walker?" He replied, mouth hung open in a mix of disbelief and confusion.
"Yeah, like two seconds ago." Rio answered. He held the snake out to Daryl in a futile attempt to change his mind.
"You're not keeping Walker." The man concluded, not sparing the reptile a second glance.
"Damn."
Daryl looked over at the boy's food, the paper bag torn open and left on the bridge. "You haven't eaten your lunch." He pointed out. "Have it quickly we need to find some meat."
"Okay." Rio sighed. He knelt back onto the mud, placing his hand down and waiting for the snake to slither away.
He rubbed his hands in his jeans, muddy prints now littering the thighs of them. The boy made sure he got as much dirt off as possible before picking up his sandwich and eating it.
"Nice?"
"Nice and stale."
Daryl shot him a look to which Rio laughed back at, his toothy grin making the man turn away smiling and shaking his head.
"Hey, Rio." He whispered, poking the boy in the shoulder as he finished off his sandwich.
"What?"
"Do you see that?" He asked, pointing to something disturbing the bushes nearby.
"Is it a deer?"
"Yeah." Daryl answered. "At least I spotted something useful."
"Ha-ha." Rio said sarcastically.
"Over there." Daryl pointed out again, jumping down from the bridge and helping the boy down after.
"What are you waiting for?" He asked the man, looking up at him.
"You try and track it." Daryl said.
"No, I can't." Rio shook his head, something reminiscent of a scoff and a laugh coming out.
"Yes you can." The man replied encouragingly. "We'll start over there and if you can't do it, I know exactly where it's gone."
"Why won't you get it then?"
"Because you won't learn that way." He offered in response, giving a small shrug too.
Rio walked through the forest, trying to track the deer Daryl had seen, to no avail. The man wasn't helping him in the slightest, just like he'd said, letting the boy figure it out on his own which was proving difficult. Really difficult.
He tried to look for tracks in the ground, or to listen out for rustling leaves or snapping twigs.
There was a sharp crack and Rio turned around, carefully making his way further into the trees. He caught sight of the tracks on the floor, deep hood shaped prints engraved in the dirt. He pointed them out to Daryl who just nodded, not making any noise.
Following the tracks led them to a small clearing, a road on the other side of the open plain. The deer Daryl had seen stood in the midst of a boggy-field, eating away at one of the bushes.
Daryl nudged him, mimicking pointing his crossbow. Rio took that as a sign and really held his bow up, holding it close to his eye and closing the other, trying to get a better aim.
The boy bit down on his lip nervously, watching the deer. It was mostly still, he could get it in one go. Easy and practically painless. He pulled the trigger and the bolt shot out.
"Aw." Rio frowned, watching as the deer fell down in a heap.
"You got it?" Daryl replied, tone confused.
Rio got up from the bush, walking over to the animal. "Still... aw." He complained, pulling the bolt out of the animal's neck.
"Would you rather us all starve?"
"I guess not." Rio shrugged
"That was some good shooting though." Daryl complimented, patting Rio's back.
"Thanks." He smiled, helping the man haul the deer up. Daryl slung it over his shoulder, carrying it back as they walked.
"Carols gonna be so happy with this." The man said. "You did good today"
"It was hard." Rio admitted. "Don't know how you do it so much."
"Wanna know a secret?"
The boy nodded.
"Most of the time I just guess."
He burst out laughing, shaking his head dismissively. "No you don't."
"Honest. I..." Daryl trailed off, looking back at the field. "Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"I saw someone."
"Who?"
"I don't know, I'm gonna go take a look." The man placed the deer at Rio's feet carefully. 'Wait here' he signed. The boy was too unsettled to be happy at the sign.
Daryl creeped back into the tree line, his crossbow ready for action and Rio stood still, his feet planted on the ground. He lay down on his stomach, propping himself up by his elbows. If someone was here, they were much less likely to see him if he lay down.
Nobody came.
Rio rushed over to Daryl who met him in the middle. "Did you find anyone?"
"I thought it was a person, but I didn't see them, they just vanished..." He replied, "It must've just been a Walker."
"Yeah." Rio agreed. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach as they walked back to the prison. Daryl knew the difference between a Walker and a human, surely.
Could it have been a human? Why wouldn't they want help?
The swing of an opening door distracted him, Carol's excited squeal being next. The boy's eyes darted over to her face, watching as she smiled brightly whilst Daryl handed her the deer.
She placed it down on the table before wrapping Daryl in a hug. He chuckled. "Don't thank me, thank him."
"Oh, I will." She replied, pulling Rio in for a hug too. "Thank you." Carol said, placing a kiss on his head.
"Tracked it himself." Daryl told her proudly.
"You did?"
"Yeah." Rio admitted bashfully.
"That just means I'll give you extras tomorrow." She smiled. "Ah, thank you. This will go down so well."
"No problem."
"Now go get yourself ready for dinner, the beans should be done anytime now."
Rio trailed off, shouting an okay at the woman before heading over to his room.
***
rip rio you would've loved Lucy gray
this chapter was entirely for fun so yeah 👍👍