Daryl Effing Dixon

I felt like my brain was going to explode as the small group introduced themselves one-at-a-time to me. I met two blond sisters...Amy and Andrea; they could have been twins, well except for the obvious age difference. Amy seemed like an innocent soul, though innocent was not to be confused with naive. Andrea seemed more guarded, her cautious blue eyes never seemed to leave me that entire night. She was kinda sweet but very protective of her little sister, as she should be. In this world you could hold on as tight as you wanted, but you always faced that risk of losing who or whatever you loved in a brutal instant.
The next set of faces I was introduced to was a man named Morales, he had a wife and two children, his wife Miranda was off tending to his children, Eliza and Louis. I figured eventually I would meet them. Another was a broad black man, T-Dog they called him, I couldn't help but feel stereotypical repeating his name. He laughed loudly and had a bright toothy grin. The last soul I met was a beautiful dark skinned woman named Jacqui, she was a soft-spoken woman. Though some pretty good jokes made their way out of her mouth.

It was nice, this seemed like a good group of people, genuine people just trying to find a sense of stability amidst a world that was anything but. I liked them, but I knew in the back of my mind that none of this would last, at any moment I could see these people's faces for the last time.

A loud voice interrupted the conversations these people were having with me, I jumped at the sound and how close this person had been behind us. I instinctively turned to look, a tall man wearing a red plaid shirt with the sleeves cut off strode towards the group. He looked the part of a back-woods hick.

Fucking A.

Could I just not get away from these people? I mean... not that I have anything against them to begin with, but I was agitated at the mere thought of one after my last run in, in Atlanta City. I couldn't help but tremble slightly, he seemed like the other two had been, open, dirty and loud. He was fucking loud..and strung out possibly. The way he wiped his nose and sniffed, I educated a guess towards coke. He spoke again, making me jump slightly.

"Hey now, we're havin' a pow-wow up here an' nobody thought to invite poor Merle?-"

Merle. It suited him. Of course it did.

The doped up redneck stumbled towards the fire and dropped himself down in a lawn chair with such force I thought the damn thing would break. Alas, it stood strong.

Several of the faces around me openly displayed annoyance and discomfort..among other things. I shifted my feet uncomfortably as I stood there, small rocks beneath my feet made noise as they grinded into the gravely dirt below. I instantly regretted my poor choice of body movement as the Merle character turned his attention to me, wasted eyes scanned every inch of my body in a manner that a predator eyes its prey. I felt violated and the man wasn't even near me. A stupid toothy grin spread across his face,

"-Well hey!"

His voice cracked.

"Lookeh here, aren't you a fine young'in. You uh.."

He leaned forward towards me in his chair as if he was going to whisper,

"You tha datin' type? Or do yah like bumpin' uglies on the regular? Yah know, no strings attached kinda gal?"

My mouth dropped open in silent disgust, Shane spoke from the other side of the small fire,

"Merle, you think that's appropriate? Becau-" Merle waved him into silence with his hand as if to lazily swat at a fly. Shane looked as if he could melt Merle with just his eyes,

"Look pumpkin, alllll I'm sayin' is, if you ever wanta' clean those pipes, you can count on ol' Merle" He winked at me and I felt the urge to throw up, spontaneously combust and scream all at the same time.

Jacqui spoke from beside me,

"Merle, ain't nobody want you near their pipes, now get outta here!"

I was shocked, once again, by the quick wit of this woman. Merle let out a deflating sound and waved his hand at all of us in a wild attempt to wipe us away from his vision as he stumbled up out of the lawn chair,

"Whatever, you people are a buncha' whack-job sissies anyhow-" He began to walk away and turned half way to look back at the group and pointed his index finger directly at me, grinned and put his middle finger up to aid his index and flicked his tongue between them before turned and stumbling off into the darkness.

I guess the look of disgust was apparent on my face, because Shane stepped up beside me, still gazing off after the bizarre man as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I shuddered,

"Don't worry 'bout Merle, he's just another junkie lookin' for people to stir up."

Glenn rolled his eyes and poked at the fire with a stick,

"-Yeah, a total douche bag." Several of the people around me chuckled, Lori spoke.

"The Dixon brothers are a little odd. But outta' the two I'd say Daryl's got the brains...Merle..well...Merle's.."

T-Dog spoke up,

"Merle is Merle. There's no explaining a whack-job like that." Chuckling came back again, slightly louder this time as they all eased. Amy looked up at me and motioned to my person,

"Daryl is the one who actually found you. Brought you back, you looked terrible. For a few minutes we all thought you were dead."

Who the fudge was Daryl? And found me? I recall that I was being chased.

"Ah you'll meet him eventually, he's a bit of a recluse, that fellow." Dale smiled and shrugged as he hoisted himself up and walked over to the small fire, I hadn't noticed the make-shift pot that sat over the hot coals. Whatever was in the pot smelled somewhat like chicken. Bland chicken.

I cleared my throat nervously and gave him a small smile in return. I felt a gentle tap on my wrist and looked over to see Lori already sitting down, motioning to the spot beside her. I obeyed, sitting down carefully on what looked to be the back seat out of a mini van? I was entertained by this and found it humorous, I guess they were fresh out of La-Z-Boys after the apocalypse.

What had seemed like several hours crept by, the mystery food from the pot had been served, I relished the bland dish. Someone offered to tell me what it was, but I declined with an enthusiastic shake of my head. I wanted to savor this, not throw it up. I listened to heart-felt stories from just about everyone, some of them had seemed so elaborate that I questioned whether or not half of it had really happened. It felt nice just to listen for once, even though sometimes I wished I could say something. The words wouldn't come, I was beginning to get sick of this whole 'almost had a heat stroke' bull. I must have seemed like a complete dumbass. However I think everyone mainly got a kick out of my facial expressions.

It seemed late and the fire had dulled down quite a bit. After while Dale climbed to the top of a large, ancient looking RV they had parked close by. I wondered if the dinosaur of a thing even still worked. Amy and Andrea had already retired back to their tent and Glenn was having a conversation with Shane, I had lost track of the others. Lori stood up beside me and wiped her hands on her pants and flashed me a tired smile,

"Hey, let's get you to bed. You'll need the rest." I nodded and stood up as well, stretching and wincing slightly at my ankle, it felt the need to remind me about my lovely bruise. Stupid tree. Lori supplied me with a small flashlight and sent me on my way back to the tent I had woken up in. She'd told me it had been a storage place for the other cooking and bedding, but they had cleared it out earlier when I'd shown up.

I bit my lip on my way back down the small dirt hill, shining my little flashlight on the ground in front of me. It was crazy how these people had just taken me in, I wasn't sheltered enough to think that they were all %100 okay with it, but I'm glad that for one night I was able to feel human again. Even if I hadn't been able to say a single word. As I entered my tent I zipped the flap shut behind me and not-so-gracefully plopped down into the fluffy sleeping bag.

God it felt good. I felt like I was floating on a cloud, a cloud that smelled like firewood and plastic, but a cloud nonetheless. I clicked off the flashlight and let my eyelids slide shut. I had met some new faces, ate an unknown substance and I had survived. Today had been a good day.

Ah we meet again, Mr. sun.

My tent was lit up like an orange light bulb and had begun to heat up as the sun raised into the sky. I sighed and wriggled my wrist to turn the watch face that adorned it towards me. 10AM? I wasn't sure, my eyes squinted so much against the neon glare of the tent that I just guessed. I sighed and it quickly turned into a yawn, so I figured I mine as well stretch too. I sat there for a moment and listened to the sounds around me. Pans clanking, talking that I couldn't make out and some laughing.

Were these people always this happy?

It scared me.

I sat up and tried to make myself as presentable as possible, pulling my hair back into its hybrid pony tail bun thing. Summer was the only time of year I was thankful that my hair barely grew. I crawled over to my backpack and opened it up, rummaging through its contents and grabbing a tank, I peeled off my t-shirt and pulled on the blue tank top. I think the only reason I kept that damn thing was because people said it complemented my eyes; But it did feel good to have less clothing covering my shoulders. I searched some more and realized all forms of weapons were confiscated from my belongings.

God Damnit.

I sighed in frustration, I felt naked without them, but I guess it was somewhat understandable from their point of view. I shrugged to myself and stood up, unzipping the tent and stepped out, I felt like I'd been blinded. I covered the top of my eyes and stumbled out, the sounds of Cicadas and people tampering with various things was abundant. I took in a deep breath and turned to walk up the small hill as I had done last night, and collided with a strong object.

I heard a grunt and looked up, looking down at me was a pair of squinting icy blue eyes. Their owner looked at me hard for a few moments then spoke,

"Glad 'yer not dead, woulda' had a mess of walkers to deal with."

I stared stupidly at him, had this man been the one who chased me and brought me to this place? What had his name been....

Daryl Dixon.