Of Monsters and Men

“I swear, I’d rather be running from those walkers than sitting here in this heat.” Emma groaned running a damp cloth across her forehead as she and the other women sat by the edge of a lake.

The blonde beside her, Andrea laughed softy as she wrung out one of Dale’s shirts, “You’re ridiculous. I’d take the heat over one of those things any day.”

Emma shrugged and refocused her attention back to the soapy shorts in her hands. She hummed softly to herself as she rinsed the suds out of the clothing. The other women chatted amongst themselves about things they missed, material things: vibrators, coffee makers, cell phones... Emma soon found herself consumed in her thoughts until a familiar voice started barking at her.

“What I tell you about taking my shirts, woman?”

Carol gasped softly causing everyone’s heads to pop up. Emma smirked to herself as she turned to see her shirtless husband standing on the overlook of the lake. “Quit it you hillbilly. Would you rather have me walk around with no shirt on?” Her fingers wrapped around the hem of the shirt and began to pull it up exposing her midsection.

In a few quick strides, Daryl Dixon grasped his wife’s hands and pulled them down causing the bunched up fabric in her hands to fall back in place, “Keep the shirt.” He muttered roughly. Out of the corner of her eye, beneath the dark sunglasses, she saw a wide-eyed seventeen year old Amy.

Emma giggled softly and pressed a kiss to Daryl’s rough stubble covered cheek. “Love you.”

The hunter shook his head and gave his wife’s behind a hearty smack. He gave her a quick nod before heading back to his watch post. Emma turned back to the abandon pile of laundry and knelt down at the water’s edge once again. This time, however, she was pulled into the other women’s conversation.

“You and Daryl are such a cute couple. I can’t wait until we get out of this mess and find myself a man.” Amy sighed happily.

Emma couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head as she continued to rub the small soap remains into a dirt stain on her white t-shirt. “Yeah, Daryl’s a good guy. He’s my rock.”

A cool breeze brushed past Emma as she anxiously gripped her boyfriend’s arm, “Daryl, I really don’t like this. Can we please go back to the cabin? Why are we out here? What if a bear finds us or-”

“If you don’t stop yapping I’ll willingly hand you over to any bear we encounter.”

A silence fell over the couple as they continued their journey in the dark wilderness. Out in the distance, there was a howling animal. Chills ran down the brunette’s spine as a few bushes began to rustle as they walked past.

Emma pleaded in fear,“Daryl, please, I want to go back. I’m scared!”

Daryl turned on his heel and groaned. He pushed a piece of hair behind Emma’s ear and kissed her, “Please for the love of god, calm down. You’ll be fine. As long as I’m around you have nothing to be afraid of. I will never let you get hurt. You hear me?”

“I love you.” She whispered.

Five years together and it was the first time those three powerful words came out. Daryl gave his usual grunt of a response but that was all Emma needed. “Better keep walkin’” He grumbled pulling her through a thick patch of trees. Through the passing, there was a picnic table with a single candle lit.

Emma’s feet stopped moving as she stared at the set up before her, “Daryl?”

There was a gentle tug on her hand causing her feet to start moving again. As they approached the table, Emma noticed a bottle of Wild Turkey Bourbon and two crystalline wine glasses. “Come sit.” He pointed to the left side of the table. Lying flat against the table was a pale green envelope with Emma’s name written in chicken scratch. “Now I aint much of a talker so I wrote it all down for you.”

Emma pushed a piece of hair out of her face and slowly sat down pulling a card. As she looked at the picture, the brunette let out a shaky laugh. It was one of the first photos of the couple on their first road trip. Slowly unfolding the folding the piece of paper, Emma let out a gasp as a few tears jumped out of her eyes.

Looking back up, the brunette saw a small velvet box sitting before her. Daryl watched his girlfriend, studied her face. Even after eight years of practice studying that one face, Daryl for once wasn’t able to read her right off the bat. Emotions were mixed and the tears threw him off completely. Sure, his lady was no stone cold fox, but she certainly didn’t shed petty tears. “What’d you say?” He urged as gently as he could.

WIthout words, Emma pushed the box towards her man and stared at him expectantly. For a second, Daryl’s whole world stopped. Was he being rejected? Before being able to get too consumed in his thoughts, Emma cracked a smile, “Put it on for me. I won’t make you ask out loud, just get on your knee and put the ring on my finger.”

“I got bad knees, woman.” Daryl grumbled rolling his eyes. When he didn’t get a response, Daryl grabbed the ring off the picnic table and huffed as he stood and walked to the other side of the table. Slowly but surely, he made his way down to one knee and flipped the box open.

“Hello, Emma.... earth to Emma!”

The brunette shook her head and rubbed her eyes quickly to see four sets of curious eyes on her. Lori smiled as she noticed Emma slowly coming back, “Welcome back, space cadet. Where’d you go off to?”

“Nostalgia is all.” She muttered looking at the worn and tired mother, “Just a bunch of stupid old memories.”

Emma rushed to finish the rest of her family’s laundry and scurried off back to the tents. She brushed past a cranky Merle and nearly fell straight on her ass. “Woah there, darlin’! Where’s the fire?”

“I’m not in the mood right now, Merle. Just fuck off alright?”

Merle just shook his head and let out a raspy chuckle as he watched his sister-in-law storm off. He wandered throughout the camp lazily, harassing whoever came in his way. It wasn’t until the sun slowly began to set that the redneck began to take his patrol a little more seriously. Shotgun in hand, Merle pulled himself up the ladder on to the roof of the RV.

As soon as Merle took his post, Emma knew it. She could feel his beady eyes follow her every move. Any step or fidget she made, he knew. The brunette joined Carol and her daughter, Sophia, in a coloring session while Lori tried to teach Carl how to divide.

“You know, Merle likes to keep a pretty good eye on you.” Carol mentioned softly picking up a green crayon. “Must make you feel safe knowing someone’s always watching your back.”

Emma bit back a laugh, “Irritating is more like it. I’m a big girl, I’ve just got a paranoid husband is all.”

Carol nodded quickly almost as if she were apologizing for even bringing up the subject matter. Emma studied the woman to her left with short hair for a moment. Carol gave her daughter a warm smile and a kiss to the forehead. There was a faint scar above the older woman’s eyebrow and Emma could only imagine what had happened.

“You know, Carol, we’ve all got your back. I mean, if anything were to happen, we’d be there in a heartbeat to help out. Right, Lori?”

Lori looked up from the workbook before her and nodded. She offered a sympathetic smile before returning to her son. Carol reached out and placed her hand over Emma’s, “I appreciate the sentiment, darling.”

Emma simply nodded. She gave Sophia a quick compliment on her coloring skills before getting up to check the status of their meal which Andrea and Amy had so thoughtfully caught in the quarry. Knowing to avoid Shane, Emma walked right up to Morales who sat by the dim campfire.

“Round everyone up. Dinner’s served.” He replied quickly with an all knowing smile.

As the group crowded around, Emma couldn’t help but shift to the back of the group. She looked around, studying the visible outskirts of camp in the hopes of seeing a glimpse of her husband. After collecting two rations of fish, Emma climbed up top to join her brother-in-law on the RV. She handed him a metal plate and cringed as she took a bite.

“World’s gone to shit and you still fuss about eating fish, don’t cha?” Merle chuckled scarfing down his serving.

Emma shrugged, “I’ll live. You see Daryl around lately? Last I saw him was earlier this afternoon at the quarry but he’s disappeared since. He go hunting or something and not tell me?”

“He’s out with Rick and the chinaman.” Merle replied, the name of the cop leaving a metallic taste in his mouth.

The brunette watched as Merle grabbed a bite of fish off her plate. “You know, Glenn isn’t Chinese. He’s Korean, there’s a difference. Can’t you see the difference between he and I?”

Merle shrugged, “Chinese, Japanese, Korean-ese.... y’all have dark hair and little eyes. Don’t make much of a difference to me.”

“You’re so racist.” Emma snarled and shoved the plate of fish into Merle’s lap.

The redneck laughing in glee knowing he struck a nerve and being rewarded for it by enjoying the rest of her food. Emma slid down the ladder and began making her way towards her and Daryl’s tent when a voice stopped her.

“Where you think you’re going all alone in the dark?”