Daryl Effing Dixon

Daryl Dixon.

His name too, had suited him. I felt tiny as I stood there, this man stood about a head taller then me. He looked of a back woods man but had appeared like a ninja. They make those now? Great. His face was framed by short messy medium brown hair, he had kind of a mustache and goatee going on as well. He hadn't seen a razor in days, stubble grew up his jaw line a little. At first the man simply terrified me, but I remembered Lori speaking of the two brothers the night before. I relaxed a little remembering that Merle was easily the more savage of the two.

I cleared my throat a little and tried to speak again, my voice came out raspy at first, surprising even me.

"Um..Thank you for...saving me" My already small voice trailed off at the end.

I was awesome at talking to strangers.

He simply stared down at me, his eyes unreadable. He shifted his body a little awkwardly, and looked away slightly then reluctantly returned his attention to me, which made me feel better. It was obvious that he wasn't one for sentiments. Or conversations. Either or.

"Yeah yeah, jus' don't make a habit outta' that shit. Next time you might not be so ga'damn lucky. I just 'bout killed you myself." With that Daryl snorted and stormed off.

The fuck just happened? I thank the man for saving my life and he chews me out?

I sat there for a moment and watched him leave, his stride carried him out of view in no time. I couldn't help but feel my cheeks burn, that man was going to be hard to get along with. Terrific. Even for the milder brother, he was still fucking scary.

"Hey! You okay?" I heard a familiar voice inquire from a couple yards behind me,
I turned around to see Dale walking towards me, his silly hat perched atop his head, a small smile present under his beard.

I nodded and cleared my throat, again, my voice coming out raspy, but not nearly as bad as with Daryl.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you.."

I half expected him to chew me out too and storm off. I was relieved when he didn't. Instead he put a hand on my shoulder,

"You can talk! Good. There for a bit we thought you were a mute." He laughed and patted my shoulder, and looked off in the direction Daryl had left and shrugged his shoulders. Then he turned his attention back to me,

"Well..just thought I'd make sure everything was okay. Tempers are a little hot around these times. Why don't you come and join us. Carol and Lori are about to start on lunch!" Carol? I must not have met her yet, he sounded excited and I couldn't help but smile. He was truly a sweet old man.

I followed him up the path, small rocks crunching beneath my shoes as I trudged. I still felt groggy, and my encounter with the ninja man had scared me half-to-death. No pun intended, I was however excited that I was able to kind of talk again. I'm sure everyone would regret it later.

When we reached the top of the small hill, several pairs of eyes found me. Some of them I'd met last night, others were new. Dale motioned for me to follow, I obeyed, we approached the small fire pit we'd huddled around the night before. Lori looked up from doing...whatever it was she was doing, she had a small bowl and was picking at small white things inside. Chalk? No. Mushrooms? I silently hoped they weren't poisonous and that she knew what she was doing. Dale stopped a few steps from a small framed woman, she was sitting in a lawn chair peeling something, a potato possibly? She looked up from her peeling to smile,

"Hi Dale," she turned her attention to me, she had a tender look to her, meek, was the only word that I could think of to properly describe her demeanor. Her sky blue eyes studied my face,

"Is this the new girl?" She smiled and put the potato down in a small pot along with the small knife she was using, and wiped her hands on her jeans.

Dale turned to me,

"Sure is, Carol this is.... this is... I'm sorry, but I don't think any of us know your name yet."

Dale, Lori and Carol watched me as I realized that it was my turn to talk. I cleared my throat and stepped forward, reaching my hand out to Carol.

"Hello Carol, I'm Farah." Carol smiled and took my hand, shaking it lightly.

"Nice to meet you Farah. That's a very unique name." Carol continued to smile as Lori spoke,

"Farah? Is it a family name?" Lori looked up at me in genuine curiosity, it was then I noticed her eyes actually looked kind of green? Was the light playing tricks on me? I shook off my wandering thoughts and opened my mouth to speak again,

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't know of anyone else in my family who has any sort of similar name. I never really sat down and talked with my parents about our families' heritage." I bit the inside of my lip, not wanting to discuss my possibly dead family anymore. I think Lori sensed this and quickly changed the subject.

"Well it's a beautiful name regardless. If you'd like you can take a seat here with Carol and I? We were just finishing putting things in the pot to start lunch." Lori motioned to a seat beside her with a long wooden spoon, I obliged and took a seat. I slouched back slightly in the chair and stared down at the knees of my jeans. My knees were beginning to sting, gauze rubbing back and forth on scabs wasn't the greatest sensation in the world.

Carol had noticed my gaze as she scraped potato bits into the giant pot sitting on the embers,

"Are your knees bothering you? When we took you in the other day they looked like you'd taken all the hide right off." I smiled a little and met her gaze,

"Yeah..well I've always been one to skin my knees. My mother hated buying me new clothes as a child. She never did see the point if I messed them up all the time."

I sat up and leaned forward in the chair and tenderly lifted some of the gauze up to peek under. They were still bloody, but not nearly as bad as they had been for the last week or so. I sighed and carefully re-covered the wound. Glenn walked up and sat down beside Carol, setting down a container next to the fire.

"Good Morning sleepy, I saw you met Daryl? Well...I guess that was the first time you'd actually met him. Being passed out doesn't really count." He laughed slightly as he leaned over to tie his shoe.

I shrugged lightly and looked off into the direction he'd stormed off in.

"Well.. I thanked him for what he did for me, but he just kind of chewed me out. Why is he so mean?" I looked back to the small group sitting with me and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't like conflict, at all. I was actually surprised I hadn't burst into tears when he had yelled at me. I was known for crying at the drop of a hat, although...I had perfectly legitimate reasoning for doing so.

I shook the thoughts from my head and a voice broke the silence... Shane's,

"Ah those two are a different breed," he announced, sauntering up and standing beside Glenn "- I wouldn't take everything they say to heart though, Merle's the trouble maker. Daryl just kind of follows his lead...you know like a..lost puppy or somethin'"

Shane's hands returned to his hips, he looked like a wanna-be cop or something. Granted he towered over us as we were sitting. I didn't like the vibe he gave off, borderline creepy douche bag. I spoke not quite understanding,

"So what are you trying to say? a 'different breed'? That they're different from us? How? Because they grew up differently? You're really not answering my question here.."

Shane looked shocked that I'd even said something back, I guess he thought he'd ended the conversation. Surprise! I wasn't one for keeping my mouth shut when the party being talked about wasn't present to defend them self. From the look in his eyes he was going to be even harder to get along with, something closely related to frustration, anger? flashed across his face, though he was quick to pull his shit together. He'd had lots of practice at this sort of thing.

"Now look, I'm not trying to say that they're bad people. They're just... different. Just not someone you wanna' get close to." I raised my brow, challenging his 'logic' if that's what you could even call it. I could feel several of the people in our company fidget and grow uncomfortable with the situation,

"So you're saying Shane, is that the group should stay away from them since they're different? Aren't they part of the group? " I felt Lori tense beside me, I caught a quick gaze from her out of the corner of my eye. What was up with these people? They acted like they were scared of this man..had he done something to them?

Shane half smiled, though it was strained and shook his head, scratching the back of his neck in a frustrated manner. He nodded and walked towards me,

"Alright, um let's say you and I go have a talk real quick?"

I realized it was a demand, not a question as he reached down and grabbed my arm, he was good at this. The way he'd grabbed my arm looked gentle, but oh did it hurt. It was then that I felt a slight twinge of panic in my stomach. He pulled me to my feet and I caught a glimps of Carol reaching over and touching Glenn's arm in something that looked like worry. Worry? I thought they looked up to this man. Lori stood and took my hand, speaking to Shane

"Shane, it's alright, really. She's curious and-" Shane cut her off and motioned to the small group,

"Guys, we're just going to have a talk, you're all acting like I'm gonna' arrest her or something."

He smiled at them and turned away, leading me down the dirt path. His smile was gone now and he kept his grip on me tight.

Shit.