I'm sitting outside on the porch swing. Rick and Glenn went out to find my dad, so that he can help Beth.
I'm just sitting and fiddling with my fingers, until I feel someone sit on the swing beside me. I look over and see Maggie.
"Hey Maggie." I greet her as she sits.
"Hey Mack." She answers back. "Ya okay?" She asks me.
"I'm fine." I say nodding my head at her. She rubs my shoulder.
"Are you sure?" She presses. I nod again.
"Yeah Mags, I'm sort of used to everything goin' wrong. It seems now that it happens more often than not."
"Yeah, guess your right, but things will get better. I know it."
"How do ya know that?"
"Cause everythin' happens for a reason. Daddy is gonna get back and help Beth get better. And we'll figure everythin' out like we always do." She says and I nod.
"Yeah, I guess your right." I say, then I look up at her. "Can I ask you a question?" I ask, smirking.
"Of course you can." She replies.
"Are ya in love with Glenn?" I say smiling widely, and raising my eyebrows waiting for an answer.
She looks at me wide eyed. She scoffs playfully, and then laughs. I giggle, then she finally answers me.
"Yeah, I think I am. At least, I like him a lot , if not in love with him." She says, I smile bigger if that was even possible. "What?" She says at my expression.
"I knew it." I exclaimed.
"Ya knew what?" She asks, raising her eyebrows.
"That y'all liked each other. I thought y'all would be cute together. I called it."
"You're sayin' that like we're already a couple. Calm down kiddo."
"What'd ya mean? Y'all ain't together yet?"
"No, I'm not even sure if he feels the same way about me." She says looking down at her hands. I roll my eyes, and give her a are you kiddin' me face.
"Maggie, your kiddin' right? I mean it's not like the guy is good at hiding his feelings, cause he ain't. I can see it. You ain't stupid I know you can too." I say.
"But, I'm not sure. Ya know I told him I loved him. He didn't say it back."
"Maybe he got too nervous to."
"Maybe. But what about you and Carl?"
"What about us?"
"Do you like him?"
"No." I lie. "He's already like a best friend to me, we're just friends."
"Well everyone in a relationship are always friends first before anything else." She replies. Then, she pats my back and goes back inside to check on Beth.
I decide to go on a walk. As I'm walking I see Lori walk up to Daryl, who is making a wooden arrow. I'm close enough to hear the conversation, so I start walking slowly.
"Moving to the suburbs?" She jokes. He doesn't even look at her. "Listen, Beth's in some kind of catatonic shock. We need Hershel."
"Yeah. So what?" Daryl replies.
"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back." Lori asks. "Daryl?" She says when he don't answer.
"Your bitch went window-shopping. You want him? Go fetch him yourself. I got better things to do." Daryl gruffly says back.
"What's the matter with you? Don't you be so selfish." Lori says. My eyes go wide, don't say that when he's got a knife! Damn!
"Selfish? Listen to me, Olive Oyl. I was out there looking for that little girl every single day. I took a bullet and an arrow in the process. Don't you tell me about me getting my hands dirty! You want those two idiots? Have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people." Daryl snaps, angry. He makes a point. I think to myself.
Lori stared at him with wide eyes, as he sat back down. Then she scoffs and walks away. I walk over to Daryl.
"Hey." I say, making him look to me.
"What'd ya want?" He asks, I'm guessing still angry from Lori.
"Nothing, just wanna talk, if you want to that is. Lori seemed to have pissed you off." I say he looks at me, raising his eyebrows.
"Did I just hear the farmers daughter cuss?. Religious farmer at that." He teases. I roll my eyes.
"Ya caught me. Don't tell my daddy though. I'd never hear the end of it. He don't even let Maggie cuss. She's 22." I say. (Don't really know how old Maggie actually is, I just made it up.)
"Our little secret then I guess." Daryl says. I smile and nod sitting beside him.
Daryl and I had gotten close I guess you could say, over the time he's been here. He's kind of like a brother to me maybe. We don't talk all the time, but he's the type of guy who you can trust to have your back, be reliable, and protect his family no matter what, even though he can be a jerk sometimes. I like that about him.
And he's sweet and kinda funny, once you get passed his tough exterior. We're both black sheep, I guess you could say. Him to his group, and me to my family.
"So, why you eavesdropping on me an Lori." He asks, going back to making his arrow. I look over at him.
"What you mean?" I ask back, playing dumb.
"Oh, don't play stupid. I knew ya were there. Walkin' real slow." He says, shaking his head.
"Well, nothing gets past you, huh? Mr. Observant." I tease, he looks at me and chuckles, to my surprise. I smile. "Oh my goodness I made the tough and serious guy laugh!" I say giggling, he shakes his head, and lightly punches my shoulder, laughing some more.
"Shut up." He says.
We're silent for a minute.
"Daryl." I say.
"Hm?" He hums in response.
"I'm worried about Beth."
He stops what he's doing to look at me. Then says,
"Why? She is gonna be fine."
"Well, what if she isn't? What if somethin' happens and Rick, Glenn and daddy don't come back? What then."
"They'll come back. Stop being so negative, yer supposed to be the positive one here." He says, I giggle. "Don' worry 'bout it." He says, I nod. "How 'bout ya go check on her."
I nod and stand up. Before I go I turn around. I walk over to Daryl, and hug him, surprising him, I could tell by the way he tensed up. He looks at me, without hugging back.
"Thanks Daryl." I say. Pulling away.
"Fer what?" He asks.
"I don't know, talking I guess. Your a nice guy." I say then walk away towards the house. To check on Beth.
Couple hours later
I'm sitting at the table, with Carl sitting beside me.
"They should've been back by now." Carol says.
"Yeah. They just got holed up somewhere." Shane reassures. I turn looking to Carl. He looked worried.
"What's wrong Carl." I ask him, putting a hand on his shoulder?
"I'm fine. I'm just worried about my dad." He whispers back. I nod, and Shane looks at us.
"Carl, don't worry. Your dad and mine are tough, they'll come back." I tried to reassure him.
"Carl, she's right, I want you to keep your head up, okay? Your old man, he's the toughest son of a..." he starts to say, but is cutoff by Patricia.
"No cussing in the house." She says reaching around me to set down a plate of food for me and Carl; made by her and Carol.
"Sorry." Shane apologizes.
Carol walks over to the door, and calls for Lori to come down for dinner.
"She's not in there." Maggie says.
"Where is she?" Dale asks. It goes silent, everyone looks at each other.
"Carl, when's the last time you saw your mom?" Shane asks him.
"This afternoon." Carl answered the question, just as confused as everyone else.
"She was worried about Rick, asked me to look in on Carl." Andrea told everyone.
"She went after them?" T-dog asks.
"No one said that." Andrea says.
I then turn my full attention to my hands in my lap, remembering the conversation I heard Lori have with Daryl earlier in the day. She definitely went after them. I just don't want involved, it's not my place. Unfortunately Maggie caught my actions.
"Mack? What do you know?" She asks, suspicion in her voice. Everyone then looks to me, making my cheeks go red with embarrassment. I shrug my shoulders.
"You know something, spill it." Andrea presses.
"It's not my place to say." I say, playing with a stray string on my pants.
"Mackenzie, Lori could be in trouble, she could be hurt or worse. If there's something you know that could help us find her you have to let us know." Shane tells me. I huff then look up.
"She was talking to Daryl earlier, asked him to go look for them. He said no, and she walked off." I explain. They all nod.
"Nobody needs to worry, we'll find her." Shane says.
Shane gets up and leaves to go look for Lori. We all eat, trying not to worry about the people that are missing, but that's impossible.
Hope you enjoyed chapter 16. If you did please vote, and comment; I want your feedback. Thanks for reading❤️just to be clear Daryl is like a brother to Mackenzie.
He will probably become like a 2nd father to her after Hershel dies; how would y'all feel about that?
(Chapter ? 👇)
Do you think Lori was a good or bad character, and why?