It has been a few months now, it had to be early January or Late December, the bitter cold told me so. We had found shelter in a storage unit, and Lori was beginning to show already, a tiny bump appearing more and more every day.
"Come on, it's your turn now to go shootin'," Daryl said gruffly, handing me a gun holster with a revolver in it. It had a suppressor on it; it was technically Carl's gun, but we used it to practice with. We had come across it in this very same storage unit.
I nod, standing up and following him outside, the cold air hitting me straight in the face. It wasn't snowing, but it was about cold enough to. Daryl and I walked into the woods for a while, leading me to the old farmhouse we had found weeks ago, where we had set up a temporary shooting range. Each day, someone would go with Daryl or Rick to practice shooting, one person at a time, so that way if a herd came through. They would only have to worry about each other and not the whole group.
"Show me what you remember." Daryl said sitting down on an old tire swing near by. I nodded taking the gun out and holding it up, aiming at the cans that were set up along the old fence rails.
"Don't tense up, you gotta mean it when a walker is coming at you." I let out a breath, trying to relax, but how could I relax? It was so cold, and he was staring at me.
I fired the bullet, hitting a tree nearby. He sighed and stood up, coming over, putting his arm around my shoulder and the other hand on top of mine that was holding the gun, he straightened my arm and fixed my eyesight.
"There now, don't move," He said, releasing me but continuing to stand beside me. I used the sights on the gun this time, aiming at the can and hitting it square on.
"Good, see ya just gotta make sure your stance is correct, you can't be fixing yourself when one of them are on you can you?" He asked, and I shook my head in response.
I fired a few more rounds before we decided to wrap it up and start heading back. I followed behind him, holding a crowbar in my hand in case we came across any of the dead. We hardly saw any now that it was so cold, but we still had a few run-ins.
I was watching the ground, not looking where I was going, when I walked right into Daryl's back. He had stopped walking, and he nearly fell to the ground when I did that.
"Watch it!" he warned in a whisper.
"Sorry, why did you stop?" I asked, positioning myself so I was beside him now.
"Tracks." He said, looking at the ground.
"Where?" I ask, staring blankly at the ground, not seeing anything but leaves and dirt.
He just sighed and began to walk to the right, keeping his eyes glued to the ground, holding his crossbow ready to fire.
"Wait, we are supposed to go back. Straight back." I followed after him.
"You are free to do that, I know the way back do you?" He asked not even looking up.
"I uh." Did I know the way back? I knew a few trees and markings, but I didn't know exactly.
"Exactly," He said, continuing, "Besides, this could be food for the group."
I sighed and followed him, keeping an eye on his vest, staring at the wings of it. I was partly wondering about his life before and the other part was making sure I didn't walk straight into him again. He turned to the left now and still I followed.
He stopped again holding up his crossbow and pointing it at something, I looked around him to see and it was a deer, a small doe, I smiled seeing her, I watched as he had his finger on the trigger, but before he could fire a small fawn walked out of behind it's mother. Daryl sighed, lowering his crossbow.
"Damnit." He muttered. I was a little surprised that he wouldn't kill either, I had found him so rough around the edges so far, but I supposed even he had morals.
"Come on," He muttered to me turning around, "Loosing the light," His feet crunching the dead leaves scared the two off, deeper into the woods. I tried to see if I could see them through the trees but I couldn't so I turned around following Daryl.
"Why didn't you shoot it?"
"You don't shoot mama deer, ain't right." He said as if it were common knowledge. I already knew that, but I wanted to confirm that even someone as tough as him had some sort of care in his heart.
We continued in silence for a while, all that we could hear was the crunching of leaves under our feet and the occasional owl hooting. It was getting dark now, and the wind was picking up.
"Hurry up," He urged and I walked a little faster behind him staying as close to him as I could as to not get in his personal space.
The wind howled, lowly, and I could feel the cold to the bones of my body. I looked around, seeing snow flurries in the air.
I stopped smiling, admiring the beauty of winter. When I looked back, Daryl was gone.
"Daryl?!" I called. And there was no answer. I kept on walking faster now, "Daryl?!" I yelled again, and again, nothing. I turned in circles, walking and turning in circles again. I only stopped for a second. Where could he have possibly gone? I walked ahead again, walking past a tree, when something grabbed my arm, the stench and growls signaling it was one of the dead. I turned around quickly, holding my crowbar up, aiming at his head, and ending up hitting his shoulder. It kept growling at me and gripping a bony arm around my arm, again I aimed and hit it on the head as hard as I could, and it fell, taking me down to the ground too, the rotting corpse on top of me no longer moving.
I lay there disoriented for a second, that was the first one I had ever put down like that. Suddenly, the weight of the corpse was off of me, and Daryl was looking me over from where I was on the ground, before kneeling beside me
"Did it scratch you? Bite you?" He asked, grabbing my arms and looking at them, before moving to my legs, then back up and down my body.
"No..No. I don't think so."
"What the fuck was that?!" He yelled at me.
"Huh?"
"You walked off I have told you a billion fucking times before to stay the hell behind me and you pulled that shit!" He said, standing up. I stood up too crossing my arms from the cold.
"I'm sorry, it was starting to snow and I..."
"You what?" Did I want to tell him I was admiring the winter? How stupid could that sound?
"Nothing..." He sighed and rolled his eyes
"Come on then," He said, annoyed, walking off, so quickly I followed behind him. The woods were getting darker now. He pulled out a flashlight then, and that's what I kept my eyes on.
I was shivering from the cold. The winter jackets we had found weren't the best, in the first place, now that it was beginning to snow, it was worse.
He glances over his shoulder at me, "I thought I gave you a sweater to wear?"
"Lori needed it, she can't fit into her jacket now because of the baby, and Carl has grown and he has hers now." It was the truth, they needed to stay warm, the storage units were almost as cold as it was outside even with the small first we had managed to start with an old grill.
He didn't say anything we just continued walking for a while, it was pitch black now and I was trusting Daryl at this point to get us back. He turned heading right again, and I followed him.
"Its too dark to be out now," He explained, he pointed the light an old cabin in the distant flash of the light, "It's dangerous, the walkers and us ain't the only ones out at night, bears are out too." I stopped in my tracks.
"B..Bears?" I asked, terrified.
"Yes, it's winter," He said, continuing to walk, and I did too. We reached the steps of the cabin, he shined his light up at it. "Better than out here." He commented, grabbing my crowbar from me without even asking and prying the front door open. When it opened, he held the crowbar out for me to take and held his crossbar up, along with the flashlight. It was a small cabin, there was a old couch and a bed. There was a mini fridge and sink too. I didn't dare open it, and neither did Daryl. There was also a small fireplace in the corner. There was a small room farther back that he opened the door to, and a toilet, sink, and shower were in there. Noting it was clear he came back to the front door, where I stood. Working together, we closed the door to the harsh winds. Using the deadbolt to lock it and sliding the mini fridge in front of it.
"There, gonna get us a fire started." He said going to it and picking up some logs nearby, they had evidently been there a while, no doubt for whoever used to come here. He then started looking around the mantel finding matches, striking one and throwing it in the fireplace. I promptly walked over putting my hands in front of the fire trying to warm up.
"You can take the bed, I'll sleep on thee couch. I'll take first watch." He said warming up aswell.
"Who do you think used to live here?" He snorted out a laugh.
"No one, it was probably a fishin' cabin in the summer and huntin' cabin in the winter."
He stood up, went to the couch, and sat down.
We sat there in silence for a while, as the fire slowly warmed up the small cabin.
I got up eventually and went to lie down on the bed. I looked it over first, you couldn't be too picky in the apocalypse, but if there was a bug or a rat, I'd rather know now than when I'm in dreamland. I looked under the blankets and didn't see anything.
I laid down pulling the blankets up to my chin, the smell hitting me, they were musty, when I turned my head to try to get away from the smell, the sheets didn't smell any better. So I laid uncomfortably on my back staring up at the ceiling, I stared up at the beams for a while, my eyelids growing heavier and heavier, until eventually I fell asleep.