Seven's POV
I've become frantic. Frantic for survival. Frantic to search for Daryl.
Not only that but I've begun to cry from the fact that I'm stranded on this damn farm with walkers in every direction. I haven't cried since I was a pup, but with all these walkers and dangers around me, I feel small. Like a small child surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves. But to add onto that I'm along and am growing extremely tired.
I understand why Daryl left. He needed to save himself and Carol. But that doesn't mean it didn't hurt to see him drive away, leaving me here stranded. Him knowing I was on the farm and leaving me besides the fact, hurt even more, but I can think about this later. My thoughts should be more focused on my survival.
He'll come back.
I mull over the options of where everyone would've met up while also dodging the walkers. Finally coming to a theory of where they've gone. My thoughts giving me a sudden boost of determination, I sprint off towards the woods at full speed. No walker being able to get the chance to even graze the tips of my fur. I reach the woods and don't stop my sprint. My lungs ache with a fiery pain that is coming from my lack of air. I jump and weave through the trees, the leaves crunching beneath my paws with the coming of fall. By now, no walkers are in sight but that doesn't stop me from this long and painful sprint. Reaching the road is when I finally slow down.
My tongue hangs from my mouth and my breaths are really heavy. My feet drags across the concrete, luckily, no walkers are in sight. I feel myself begin to gag, so I stop and continue to repeatedly gag, the bile finally comes up. And a lot of it. Nasty. I continue my walk down the middle of the road, no cars around. My paws ache and my eyes droop from exhaustion. My tail sways from side to side and my head hangs low. My body begs for rest but I continue to push it, needing my owner, needing Daryl.
He'll come back, won't he?
Daryl's POV
"Where's the rest of us?" I ask, scanning through the members of the group. Rick, Lori, Carl, T-Dog, Glenn, Maggie, Hershel, Beth were the ones who were here. Shane, Patricia, Andrea, and Seven were the ones who were no where in sight.
"We're the only ones who have made it so far" Rick says.
"Did any of you see, Seven?" I ask, just trying to know if my best friend for the past year and a half is alive. They all ignore my question, some avoiding eye contact or others just acting like they didn't hear me. The only person who acknowledged my question was Carol who turned to me and gave a sort of sympathetic shrug. I can feel myself becoming aggravated. Jus' wanna know where my dog is.
Lori stands up from her uniting hug with Carl, "Shane?" Rick simply shake his head and directs his eyes to the ground. Good riddance.
"Andrea?" Glenn asks.
"She saved me, then I lost her." Carol says from beside me. And then you were saved again..
"We saw her go down" T-Dog says from where he lazily hangs from the car door.
"Patricia?" Hershel asks, while Beth clings to his side and Maggie stands on the other side of Beth trying to comfort her.
"They got her too, took her right in front of me. I was— I was holdin' onto her daddy. She just— " Beth sobs, unable to continue her story of Patricia's death. "What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"
"He was in the R.V., it got overrun." Rick says, causing Beth to break down into even more tears. I shift my stance, becoming uneasy with the atmosphere within the group.
"You definitely saw Andrea?" Carol asks.
"There were walkers everywhere" Lori says in response. That wasn't what she asked.
"Did you see her?" Carol asks again.
Where the fuck is Seven?
I voice my thoughts "You guys seen Seven?" I try to mask my worry and irritation but judging from the face Carol was giving me, it wasn't very well.
"No, we thought he was with you." Rick says. My heart drops and panic quickly floods across me, thinking that seeing him in the midst of a herd of walkers would be the last i'd ever see of him.
"I'm gonna go back" I say gripping the handles of my bike.
"No" Rick answers flatly, even though it wasn't a question.
"We can't just leave him or Andrea behind" I press on, trying to convince him it's worth going back. Seven being left behind is more than a enough of a reason to go back for me, but he wasn't as close to Seven as I was.
"We don't even know if they're there" Lori says softly.
"They aren't there. They aren't. They're somewhere else or they're dead. There's no way to find them" Rick still not making eye contact with anyone. I frown at his words, panic swelling inside of me even more. Seven ain't dead.
"So we're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn asks. While he says this I begin to formulate a plan. I have to go back.
"We gotta keep moving. There have been walkers crawling all over here."
"I say head east" T-Dog says.
"Woah woah woah, I ain't leaving Seven. Imma circle the outsides of the property an' try and look for 'im" I say straddling the sides of my bike. A stray walker walks towards us, trying to have a five-coarse meal on it's own.
"Daryl-" Rick begins but I cut him off.
"No. You guys stay off the main roads. The bigger the road, the more walkers, more assholes like this one. I got him" I say bringing up my crossbow and releasing a bolt, right through the walker's right eye. "You headin' east right?" I throw my crossbow over my back and sit down on the small cushioned seat.
Rick's face seems to hold a lot of distaste in my decision to look around the perimeter of the property, though I really don't care right now. "Yeah, don't get bit" Was his response. My focus is to find Seven. I start of the bike and it comes alive with a loud rumble, it's reminds me of when I'd have to wake up Merle after one of his night's out.
"I didn't plan on it" With that I turn the bike around and head off into the direction we came from. The wind blows past me and the leaves underneath my tires crunch, if everything didn't happen, this might've been peaceful.
I swerve around the occasional walker, my mind beginning to drift off though my eyes are still on the lookout for a black furry dog. I can remember seeing him through the herd of walkers. He looked so happy to see me but also, so panicked with all that was going on. But I left him anyways. I clench my fist tighter around the handlebars of the motorcycle and speed up.
Seven's POV
Blood drips from my mouth, most of it being walker blood. My black fur is matted down with blood making some pieces of fur stick together giving it a greasy texture and look. My chocolate brown eyes search for two things; walkers and Daryl, though both have yet to meet my eyes.
The symptoms I had previously have only worsened. The pads of my paws have likely begun to burn off from the heat that the asphalt attracts and my nails are dragged against it making then splintered, though I can't lift them any higher.
"C'mon Seven! Dixons don't die!" I faintly remember that being a motto quite often said around the Dixons and I've begun to adopt it as my own, gladly doing it because I think I may be dead if I hadn't started to think about it.
My tail doesn't even sway with how slow my movements are and my head still hangs low. Drool doesn't drip from my mouth anymore, probably from dehydration, and anytime I gag nothing comes up anymore.
I'm dizzy and nauseous now and feel like I can pass out at anytime, though I'm afraid if I do then I'll actually die.
I stop. In the middle of the road and look ahead trying to see if anything was there but there wasn't. I continue to stare at the horizon seeing that it has started to spin more, I look around into the forest and it is spinning as much as the horizon. I try to balance myself and continue to fight my drooping eyes but I struggle to do so.
Finally I fall over and my eyes close. I loss.
Daryl's POV
I've been driving for what feels like an hour but has probably only been 15 minutes. My worries have spiked even more because nothing but stray walkers have come into sight. What if he is dead? I try to shake the thought from my head but it refuses to leave. I try to reassure myself but the best I can come up with is He's a Dixon, he's alive.
The road begins to have an incline; a hill. But once I reach the top my heart sinks to the pits of my stomach and fear courses through my body. At the base of the hill was a ball of black fur on its side.
Dead or Alive?
———
Please read and consider.
Hello, I'm going to be blunt. I'm looking for some constructive criticism for the actual content and story. Now obviously there are grammar mistakes and sentences that can be worded better but I'd like to know if you think changes can be made to Seven. For example, you wish there was more interactions with Seven and a character. Or you'd like to see more of Seven's thoughts (which quite often are my own just with a southern accent) . Or you'd like to see Seven go on his own for a bit. Maybe, you think things are perfect the way they are. I'm just primarily looking for suggestions, ideas, or what your wildest imagination may be for Seven. I'd love to hear them and see what I can implement into this.