To Keep You Close to Me

It was early morning when Daryl shook me awake. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon, lending just a little bit of light. The air was cold and Daryl could sense that I was freezing. Since he was no longer able to keep me warm, he threw another blanket over my body.

“I’m goin’ on another hunt, might be out all night,” he told me. He tried to keep his voice at a low whisper since Merle was now sleeping on the other side of the tent.

“Okay. Be careful,” I ordered.

“Always am.” Just as he finished talking, he leaned down and placed a very soft kiss on my right temple. I wished he would have kissed me on the lips seeing as it had been a very long time since he actually had done so.

The corners of Daryl’s mouth tugged up into a tiny smile, but it had disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. He then unzipped the tent, stepped out with his crossbow and zipped the tent back up again. I could hear his footsteps fade as he left camp.

I laid back down and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t keep my eyes shut. I was completely awake now and it had become too bright to sleep so I grabbed a book that Dale had lent me and picked up where I had last left off. Dale didn’t have a very big selection, but he offered them out to anyone who wanted them.

Within a few short hours, I finished a large chunk of the book. Since it was quiet, that was an easy task. I placed a folded card to hold my place and laid it on the floor of the tent. I could hear others around camp leaving their tents, so I decided to join them. During one of the last runs out to the city, we had gathered a few more tents so now no one had to sleep in a car. People were in a better mood now that they no longer had to sleep uncomfortably, not that the ground was any better, they weren’t cooped up.

Lori was the first one out so I offered to help her with breakfast, which wouldn’t consist of much. We only had canned foods left so we would soon need to go into the city to scavenge for me. I suggested it to Lori, so she brought it up to the rest of the group once they all came out of their tents.

“Would anyone be willing to go into the city?” Lori asked the group. In response, she got a offers.

“I’ll go,” Glenn offered. He knew the area well and knew how to get around, plus he was fast. T-Dog, Jacqui, Morales, Andrea and finally Merle all offered to go. There were still chores to be done around camp, so I chose to stay. Plus, I’d rather let them deal with Merle.

As the small group prepared themselves for their journey, I stepped back into my tent. Carol and I were going to do some more laundry. We wanted to ensure that the life we were living was still good and one way to make that possible was to have clean clothes. I gathered some of my clothes and a few things of Daryl’s. Merle stepped in shortly after me only to witness me skip over his things.

“I think you’re forgettin’ mine,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You don’t like the way I clean your shit, so you can do it yourself from now on,” I spat. The last time I washed his clothes, he thought I didn’t do a very good job. Washing clothes in a pond isn’t really the best way to clean them. You can only get them so clean.

“Look here, Princess. Just because my brother’s nice to you, ain’t mean I gotta.” He picked up a shirt of his and tossed it in my direction, but I made sure to miss it.

“Same goes to you, Prick. You can do your own laundry,” I said, stepping on his shirt as I exited the tent.

“Hey!” Merle called after me. I continued to ignore him as I called Carol to head down to the quarry.



“Don’t you think they should be back now?” Amy asked, worried about her sister.

“I wouldn’t worry just yet,” Dale yelled down from the RV. Dale had a calming effect to his voice. He had become the voice of reason in this catastrophic world.

“Yeah, if they’re not back by dark, then I’d worry. They have a lot of stuff to gather. I’m sure they’re just fine,” I assured her.

I decided to finish Dale’s book so then I could trade it in for another. Reading kept my mind off of Daryl being out on his own and the rest of the group being gone. Plus, we didn’t really have anything else to do. There weren’t any other chores to be done; we had finished the laundry and the dishes were clean.

I picked up the book, flipping to the page where the folded card marked and began reading under the sun. I was set on finishing the book within the next hour or so. I only had a few chapters left so it would be easily done. But a half an hour into my reading, we heard voices on the police radio. Amy ran to the radio, eager to communicate with the person on the other side.

The signal was bad causing a lot of static between words. We couldn’t decide if it was T-Dog or not. It sounded like him and it sounded like he was saying that they were trapped in a department store.

“We need to go save them!” Amy exclaimed. Lori looked to Shane for the next set of orders.

“No, we ain’t gonna risk anymore lives out there,” he said. Lori looked pissed off at him as usual. She was always making faces with Shane. She was either batting her eyelashes or glaring at him. It wasn’t hard to see that they were banging each other behind a bush.

“If she’s trapped, then she’s gone,” Shane added.

But if looks could kill, Shane would be dead. Amy’s eyes were narrow and her jaw was clenched.

“That’s my sister, you son of a bitch,” she spat and walked off. I ran after her and quickly caught up to her.

“Amy, I’m sure they’re fine. There’s probably just a group of walkers and they can’t get out. They know how to handle themselves,” I tried explaining.

“But what if it’s not just a group, what if it’s a herd of walkers?” she questioned. “They’ll never get out of there!”

“You can’t think like that. Once you start to worry-”

You don’t have a sister out there! Daryl’s not out there! You don’t know what it’s like,” she said. I was taken aback by her comment. Daryl was out there. He was out in the woods hunting for the food we eat. But I knew she was upset about the matter so I didn’t press the issue any further. I turned away from her and walked away. I heard the door to the RV slam shut. She was still such a child at heart.

I remembered that I had to return a book back to Dale, so I stepped into my tent and grabbed it. I walked back to the RV, knowing that Amy would still be in there. I opened the door and climbed up. Amy was sitting at the table, looking out the window. She looked up at me but immediately turned back to the window, while I silently placed the used book on the shelf where I had gotten it.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled as I was about to step out of the RV.

“For what?”

“What I said. I shouldn’t have said that,” she added.

“You were upset, I understand,” I said.

“I just hate that Shane tries to control us. And it’s always a battle between him and Merle for leadership. I don’t know if either of them really knows how to guide us.”

What Amy was saying really register in my head. Merle was too controlling, but Shane really only cared about Lori and Carl. I knew that everyone wanted someone to actually take charge and give us a plan, but no one was going to step up and do it. We needed someone we could trust.