"Alas! There is no instinct like the heart."
— Lord Byron, Canto IV
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Daryl
I FELT AT ease in the woods. Always have, always will. It was the place where I could escape anything. Well, anything except a certain blonde. Kathryn maneuvered the woods with an undeniable ease. There was no doubt in my mind she was a hunter at heart. We recognized our own kind. I knew from the moment we met she was the real deal. No one can read the forest that well without growing up in it.
I suppose getting her out here was more so I could see how much of my shit she'd take. I'd tried different angles, and every attempt to get under her skin, she'd smirk and give my shit right back to me. There had to be something behind her mask, and I was determined to find it. Normally people didn't interest me. I couldn't care less what any of the other people back at camp did, but... Kathryn froze in front of me, causing me to slow. She dropped to a crouch and loosed a bolt. Glancing over her shoulder at me, she smirked then retrieved a rabbit. How could I ignore that?
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"It's getting dark," Kathryn spoke softly. Everything about her was quiet. Neither her steps nor her words would scare any game away. At times she was too quiet, flying under my radar without a second thought. I looked down and met her green eyes for a split second before looking away. "I'm not walking all the way back to camp," she then said.
We stopped, and I gave her a confused look. Did she think I was going to carry her? Kathryn slipped her crossbow over her head before walking over to a tree. She easily lifted herself up its numerous branches. It didn't take long before she was settling herself on a branch about ten feet up in one graceful motion.
"You coming, or are you going back to camp?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "I have no problem taking on the deer alone. I have tracked it this far."
Looking up at her, I shifted from foot to foot. I hadn't climbed a tree since I was small. In the end, my pride got the better of me. With a huff, I slung my crossbow across my shoulders in the same style Kathryn had. Climbing up the tree, I soon sat on a branch a little ways from Kathryn. Granted, it probably hadn't been with the same grace and ease, but at least I hadn't been completely shown up by her.
I glanced over at Kathryn and saw a slight flicker of something in her eyes. I shook my head and looked away. It was probably just the lighting—or lack thereof. I stole another glance at Kathryn to see she was now sitting with her knees brought up to her chest, head tilted up towards the sky. For a moment, a split, fleeting second, she almost looked soft. Not in a weak sense; in a sense her scowl had faded, and the sharp angles of her features no longer seemed as if they could cut you with a well placed sneer.
The moment was short lived. "I don't know what the hell you're looking at. There's nothing to see," Kathryn said, meeting my gaze. Shit. I looked away and cleared my throat awkwardly.
"You're a piece of work. I hope you know that," she finished.
"Now I do," I replied.
"Good."
Silence fell between us again. I would've liked the quiet, but there was something different about it. Though no sound was exchanged, something heavy still hung in the air.
Kathryn
I bit my lip as an awkward silence fell over us. "I never caught your last name," I said, glancing over at him, breaking the horrid silence.
Daryl hesitated before answering, "Dixon."
"Huh...that sounds familiar," I said honestly. "I think I would remember you, though."
"Right, 'cause I'm a piece of work."
"Yep."
Daryl let out a kind of scoff that could possibly be considered a laugh. He then shifted on his branch before asking, "How're ya so good at climbing up these damned things?"
I shrugged. "Practice, I suppose. Growing up I used to climb them all the time. They were an..." It took me a moment to think of the right word. When I did, Daryl had apparently thought of it too, because at the same time we said, "Escape."
We definitely needed to stop doing that. I averted my eyes back up at the sky, anything to distract myself from the person sitting fewer than two feet away from me. Suddenly feeling the need to crawl into a hole and die, I curled further into myself.
On top of all that, I was also confused. Daryl obviously wasn't just an asshole. Maybe we had more in common than I originally thought. I inwardly shuttered. Someone else being able to relate to me? Now that was a scary thought.
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Kathryn! Get your ass up and ready to go!
I woke up gasping for air, and the low groan that sounded from next to me did nothing to calm my racing heart. My eyes quickly snapped to the source of the sound, revealing only a stirring Dixon. I slumped back against the tree. With my fingers raking through my hair, I tried to regain a form of composure. I could almost breathe normally again when Daryl finally woke up.
He rubbed his eyes and then looked over at me. His expression changed instantly. "What happened?"
"Nothing," I replied, then realized I had replied too fast. Daryl gave me a do-you-really-think-I-believe-that look. I threw him a sneer before swinging my leg over the tree branch. Did he think that I was going to tell him anything? I then jumped down from the tree and landed on the group with a soft thump.
"You're crazy. I hope you know that," Daryl said, still sitting up in the tree.
"Yeah, trust me, I know."
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Daryl and I continued tracking for another couple of hours. We had picked up a dozen or so squirrels along the way, but there was still no sign of the deer. It would seem as if it had decided to walk in a circle, its tracks leading us back to the vicinity of the camp. At that moment, the sound of a stick breaking sent Daryl and I both instinctively crouching and raising our bows.
Daryl tapped my shoulder—barely brushed it with the back of his hand—but I still jumped slightly. Looking up at him, he gestured to his left. I followed his gaze and saw what we had been tracking. I hesitated before tilting my head towards the deer in a silent 'take the kill'. He shook his head before signalling to follow him. I silently trailed behind until we were in an optimal position to take down the deer
He took the first shot, and my bolt shortly followed behind the blur of white and green fletching. By then, Daryl had another bolt loaded, and he shot once again, taking down the deer. We both rose to our feet, and I found myself searching his expression again, wondering if he had ever hunted with someone before. I sure hadn't. Hunting was something I did alone. My father had taught me to shoot, but I had taught myself the rest. My early life consisted of endless hours of combing through the woods, learning to read misplaced dirt and leaves as well as any book. Hunting with someone else shifted the balance, but unlike I would have predicted, the weight had shifted in our favor.
Daryl and I both stiffened as a few low growls traveled through the air. Looks like I had spoken too soon. "Don't reckon we've gotten any up this far before," Daryl said quietly.
"How nice of them to join the party," I replied before heading off in the direction of the growls.
The walker stumbled out from the trees and turned its rotten head at us. It gave a low guttural growl before Daryl took a step in front me. I resisted the urge to scoff. My attention was pulled away from the situation at hand as I was shoved into a tree. The smell of rotting flesh blanketed me, and I found myself staring into clouded over eyes. Pushing the walker back with my forearm, I brought my boot up and grabbed my knife. The handle of my knife hit the walker's skull just as a bolt with green and white feathering pierced the other side.
The body fell limp against me. With a groan of disgust, I shoved the walker off of me. The space was soon replaced by Daryl. "Are ya bit? Scratched?" he asked quickly.
"No," I replied. "I'm fine." He narrowed his eyes slightly, but held out my bow, which had been dropped in all of the commotion. I flicked some walker nasty off me before grabbing it.
"Thanks."
All of a sudden, screams pierced the air. As I realized the screams belonged to the kids back at camp, I broke into a sprint. Daryl's footsteps were behind me the whole way. When we broke through the treeline, we met our group pointing weapons at us, a decapitated walker, and our deer as walker chow. Looking over at the group, I saw new faces. My gaze landed on a man who was looking at me as well. Something stirred in the pits of my being.
"Son of a bitch!" Daryl cursed. "That's our deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this" —as if he wasn't making a point already, he started to kick the body of the walker with every curse—"filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!"
Dale decided to step in. "Calm down, son. That's not helping."
"What do you know about it, old man?" Daryl demanded. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?"
Daryl tilted his head back at me. "We've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp." He pulled out the three bolts, then handed me the one with orange fletching. "Cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"
I tilted my head to the side. It was decent in theory, but I wasn't sure I would risk it.
"I would not risk that," Shane said.
"That's a damn shame," Daryl sighed. I agreed with that. "We got a rabbit and some squirrel."
Daryl held out his hand for my rope. I handed it to him, and he continued, "About a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
As the walker's head opened its eyes, Amy muttered, "Oh, God." Needless to say, she left in a hurry after that. I, on the other hand, fired a bolt. It landed smack in the middle of its forehead. The group, besides Daryl, looked at me with shock.
"What?" I asked. "It's gotta be the brain. I thought y'all knew that by now."
Daryl glanced over his shoulder at me, and I swear there was a flicker of amusement in his eyes. He quickly turned away and headed towards camp yelling, "Merle!"
I walked up to the man who had first caught my interest. He gave me a cautious look before holding out his hand. "Rick Grimes.
I didn't shake his hand. "Grimes? As in, Lori's husband?" He nodded. This fact did nothing to quell the feeling surrounding this man. "Kathryn Johnson.
"Pleasure to meet you. Carl has talked a lot about you." We started walking back to camp. "All good things, of course.
There wasn't any part of me that cared what people thought of me, but it warmed my rock heart slightly to hear Carl talked about me.
"Daryl," Shane called, "just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."
That couldn't be good. Daryl stopped, and I could tell he knew something was up too. "'bout what?"
"About Merle," Shane replied, running a hand through his hair. I took a step forward, a tad bit closer to Daryl. "There was a problem in Atlanta."
Everyone had now gathered around. They all knew something we didn't, and by the looks on their faces, it couldn't be good. Daryl glanced at me, and I shrugged. "He dead?" Daryl asked.
"We're not sure."
I sighed, "Stop beating around the bush."
"Yeah, he either is or he ain't," Daryl growled lowly.
Rick stepped up. "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."
"Who are you?" Daryl demanded, becoming even more agitated.
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes, you got somethin' you wanna tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
Well shit. I watched Daryl carefully. He was going to explode, it was only a matter of when.
"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?" Daryl shouted angrily.
Rick's eyes fell to the ground. "Yeah.
Daryl pounced, throwing the roped squirrels at Rick and going after him. Shane pushed Daryl to the ground, but it didn't slow him down. He pulled the hunting knife from his belt, which I happened to see coming. While others were screaming 'watch the knife', I acted. As he jumped for Rick, I came up behind him and grabbed his arm with the knife. Using his momentum against, I twisted it behind his back, making him lose his grip on the weapon.
"Fuck you!" Daryl cursed.
I let go of his arm and picked up his knife. Walking in front of him, I held his knife in an offensive position. "Oh, I'm so scared," I mocked. "Grow a pair and calm yourself. He isn't dead yet. There's no need for that alpha male bullshit. Let the man talk." I threw the knife at Daryl's feet, so it stuck blade first in the ground. At a second glance, I saw I also had clipped his shoelace. Call it serendipity if you will.
Rick was the first to speak. "I would like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do we think we can manage that?"
"I'm pretty sure Kathryn just sealed that deal," Shane said.
"Damn right," I muttered, folding my arms across my chest.
Rick took a deep breath. "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others.
"It's not Rick's fault," someone I didn't recognize spoke up. He was stocky, his head was shaved, and a hint of facial hair was above his lip and on his chin. "I had the key. I dropped it."
Daryl asked the question on my mind. "You couldn't pick it up?"
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
Daryl must've been close with his brother, considering the amount of emotion he was showing. His shoulders sagged, and he dropped his head into his hands. The second of vulnerability was gone as quickly as it came, and he was back to his pleasant self. "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't.
The man took another step forward. "Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof—so the geeks couldn't get at him—with a padlock."
"It's gotta count for something," Rick added.
Pawing at his eyes, Daryl yelled, "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is, so's I can go get 'im."
"He'll show you." Everyone looked over at Lori. "Isn't that right?"
"I'm going back," Rick said after a moment of silence.
I shifted nervously. The tension was thick in the air, and it was killing me. Daryl stalked off, causing everyone to sigh with relief and head on their way. A flash of red in my peripheral vision caused me to turn my head. A Dodge Challenger sat parked by the R.V., speaking to my curiosity. The hood was already open, so I went to take a peek.
I heard the footsteps before I heard the voice. "You like cars?"
Looking over my shoulder, I saw another person I didn't recognize. This boy wore a baseball cap that caused a shadow to cast over his high cheekbones. "I suppose. Do you?"
He nodded. "Yeah, Rick and I we, uh, stole this one."
"Is that suppose to impress me?" I deadpanned.
His cheeks instantly flushed red. "No, no. I mean...maybe. Uh."
I leaned against the car. A grin pulling at my lips. "I'm just messing with you. Name's Kathryn."
He sighed, "Glenn."
"Nice car," I said turning back to the engine. "2009 Dodge Challenger R/T. Three hundred seventy horsepower, if my memory serves me right."
"Wow," Glenn muttered. "Were you, like, a mechanic or something?"
"Nah," I said, "just...grew up around cars is all."
"Impressive memory then."
I didn't have a chance to respond as Rick and Shane started arguing rather loudly.
"Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane asked.
"Hey, choose your words more carefully," Daryl said lowly, materializing from thin air next to me. Glenn took one look at Daryl and fled.
Shane didn't miss a beat. "No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant."
Daryl took half a step forward. "Don't start something else," I said so only he could hear. "I wouldn't want to have to show you up again."
He glared at me, but didn't make anymore advances. "Merle Dixon," Shane started, "the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
Wow, who knew the jerk gene was hereditary?
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me," Rick said firmly. "I can't let a man die of thirst—me—thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asked.
Daryl threw a glare her way, which didn't faze her. Rick turned to Glenn. Who had made his way to the opposite side of camp.
"Oh, come on," Glenn moaned. Rick started talking to him, and eventually I saw Glenn nod.
Rick then turned to me. He hesitated but said, "I know I shouldn't ask you, considering I just met you and all, but I have a feeling the quiet life isn't quite your style."
"She ain't comin'," Daryl snarled
"Hell no. I'm coming," I corrected. Daryl once again glared at me, and I returned it. "He's right. The quiet life doesn't agree with me."
Shane scoffed, "That's just great. Now you're gonna risk four of our people."
"Five," the stocky man from earlier said.
Daryl grumbled, "My day just keeps getting better and better." Both of them started arguing with each other. I rolled my eyes.
"So five," Dale said, cutting off their arguing.
"It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick," Shane said angrily, walking away.
Rick watched Shane leave before he looked back at me. "You can say no," he said.
"I know."
"We'll take the cube van," Rick told me before walking away.
I decided to make my way over to said cube van. Hopping up to sit in the back, I hoped to get a little peace so I could think. What was I doing? I didn't even like these people, and here I was about to head out and risk my life for them. No, it wasn't anything personal. I was simply going stir crazy here. Heavy footsteps had me raising my head.
Daryl came into view, and I said, "How'd I know it was you? Oh, yeah, you sound like an elephant."
He sneered. "Yeah, I ain't unnaturally quiet like you all the time."
"Old habits die hard," I said.
Daryl jumped up and started pacing along the width of the back compartment. "Why're ya coming?" he asked.
"I already said."
"That ain't the whole reason."
"I hate not doing anything, and this camp is suffocating with everyone's petty bullshit. I'm gonna go more crazy than I already am."
Daryl held my gaze for a second before walking up to the front and honking the horn.
"C'mon let's go!" he yelled.
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The ride there was silent except for the screams of Daryl's glares. When we were almost there, he broke the silence. "He'd better be okay. It's my only word on the matter."
"I told you. The geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us," the stocky man whose name was T-Dog said.
Glenn stopped the van and turned towards us. "We walk from here."
Daryl jumped out of the van first, followed by T-Dog. When I got to the edge of the van, Daryl held out a hand. I went to place my hand in his, but hesitated. I didn't need his help. Looking up and meeting his gaze, he gave a nod towards his hand. I hesitated once again before lightly placing my hand in his. His hand was as rough as his personality, yet his fingers barely wrapped around my hand. Everywhere his hand touched mine though, my skin erupted with a buzzing sensation. What was that?
I jumped down and quickly removed my hand from his. Daryl gave me a long look before turning away. Bringing my hand up to my chest, I rubbed away the phantom feeling. It wasn't until I saw Daryl making and releasing a fist at his side that I realized it hadn't just been me.