You Me & the Dead

I sat situated between Herschel and Carol through dinner, which consisted of squirrel an cabbage soup. It was a long way from a cheeseburger but in its own right tasted amazing. As the night progressed I hadn't seen Daryl at all but as the meal ended and everyone began to go their separate ways, Carol handed me a bowl of soup.

"Here, take this to Daryl, he's in the bed of his truck."

I just nodded and took the bowl from her and began the trek back up the road to where we had parked. As I approached the truck I could see the back of Daryl's head, it was bent down and the closer I got I could see he was pulling very hard at something.

"What are you doing?" I questioned as I stood next to the truck.

"What does it look like I'm doing? he held his crossbow up to show that he was tightening the strings. I was thankful for the dark so he couldn't see me blush.

"From behind it looks a whole lot different than playing with your bow," I say as I hand him the bowl of soup.

Daryl sets down the crossbow and takes the soup from my hands, "Yeah, I bet."

I walk around to the open tailgate of the truck and hoist myself in and set down.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I throw his words right back at him, playfully. I can see in the light of the full moon a small grin on his face.

"Looks like ya buggin' me." My face fell.

Then Daryl laughed, "You're way too easy of a target."

He then moved his crossbow to the right of him and patted the now empty spot. I scooted down the bed to sit next to him.

"Am not," I mumbled as I got comfortable. He only sighed in reply. "So talk. You made me talk on the drive, it's your turn now Dixon."

Daryl looked down at me at the sound of his last name which I hard learned form Maggie at dinner. She was very bubbly and talked a lot.

"Alright, McDonald," He breathed out before pausing and I wasn't too sure he was going to saying anything for a while. I was about to prompt him again when he spoke. "I'm an orphan too. All I have is this bike, this crossbow and those people out there. I'm hell... hell, I can't even remember how old I am. Thirty? Wow."

"Before all of this were you married? Did you have kids?" I could practically feel his eyes roll.

"No and no. Don't want kids."

"Why not? Kids are amazing! I still want to have them."

"Lexi, you're fuckin' stupid. You're gonna die."

I pushed myself away from him at this, "What the fuck do you mean? Just because there isn't any hospitals anymore-"

"How do you think Carl and Judith's mom died?" He spat at me.

I thought of the little dark haired baby and Carl's vindictive attitude. She died in childbirth, "Oh." Was all I could think to say as I scooted back to Daryl's side.

"Yep." I heard him slurp the bowl as my head dropped to him shoulder and he tensed up at the contact but soon relaxed.

I was so close to falling into a deep sleep when Daryl shook me awake, "Lexi, wake up! Wake up NOW!"